Bubblegum Crisis 2033: The Story of Number 7
by Black Robed One
Summary: A Boomer of a new type escapes the laboratory, and Knight Sabers are soon contracted to destroy it. But everything is more complicated then it appears to be…
1. Beginning

Author's notes:

This story is a crossover between Bubblegum Crisis 2032-2033 and Elfen Lied, set in Bubblegum Crisis 2032-2033 reality with characters and some other elements from Elfen Lied added to it. In regard of timeline, this story takes place after the last OVA episode "Scoop Chase", before and instead of Bubblegum Crash.

It should be noted that Elfen Lied characters will defer from the way they were presented in Elfen Lied to various degrees, due to different past (in some cases) and different origins (again, in some cases). It should also be noted that there will be no "Nyu" in this story, only Lucy, who will play a significant, but not main part in this story.

And finally, Nana, Lucy and Mariko won't be Diclonii in this story, they will be something else, although their abilities will mostly be identical to the ones they displayed in Elfen Lied (but since they are living in a high-tech world now, their abilities won't be as unsurpassed as they were in Elfen Lied). Also, they won't have distinguishing horns in this story either; the only distinguishing features they will have will be red/pink hair and eyes, although it should be noted that unusual hair colors are rare but not unheard of in Bubblegum Crisis reality.

Alright, and now without farther ado, let this story begin! (Though on a second thought, I will provide you with keys as well as make an obligatory disclaimer first.)

Keys:

"text" – dialogue

'text' – communication via phone, comlink, etc...

"_text"_ – thoughts

_text_ – song lyrics (sometimes the songs will be the part of the story, other times they will be made in form of musical fill-ins or background songs, like the ones we often encounter in the anime)

**text** – will be used in numerous of diverse cases, including (but not limited to): indication of beginning and end of flashbacks, indication of how much time has passed since the last scene, some text characters read or see, etc.

Disclaimer:

I don't claim ownership over either Elfen Lied or Bubblegum Crisis 2032-2033 animated series. This story is a fanfictional work that has been written without either of these animated series' acknowledged owners' knowledge or permission, and will be removed from the view of the public should any of them request it.

**Beginning**

GENOM Research Laboratory Number Three, Advanced Research and Fine-Tuning was in chaos. Amidst the people screaming and running, the IT operatives were frantically working to get laboratory's internal network back online. So far, it was mostly down, and the only fully functional part of it was communication system, which was currently broadcasting all-personal announcement:

'A-level alert! Number 1 went rogue! Repeating, Number 1 went rogue! All personal is suggested to remain calm and stay on their work stations! Security team is on its way to deal with the situation; unless you have been given specific instructions, all the work will be halted until the situation is dealt with. Repeating, A-level alert…'

But as it was often the case, suggestion to keep calm provoked completely opposite state among the personal, and the news that there was a rogue Boomer on a rampage within laboratory's walls only reinforced it. So it wasn't surprising that a group of scientists were hastily making their way towards the doors even as the loud-speakers were repeating the urge for all of laboratory's staff to remain calm.

They were nearing their destination, when a young red-haired woman dressed in bloodied lab coat stepped out of one of the side corridors. The surprise stopped the scientists in their tracks and this proved to be their undoing, for the next moment the young woman turned her head to look at the scientists, and four of them were immediately torn apart before their colleagues' horrified eyes. This brought the remaining three scientists back to their senses and they turned to run, but it was already too late for them: legs, arms, and finally heads flew off the bodies as though they were cut off by invisible blades.

With a cruel smile and sadistic gleam in her red eyes, the young woman turned away from the massacre she caused and began walking the same direction the scientists used to run to. The exit out of this hellish place was near, she could feel it, and nobody would stand between her and freedom.

* * *

In another part of the complex a notably younger girl stood in the middle of a deserted room, looking around confusedly. The last instructions she received weren't very detailed, in contrast to all instructions she was receiving until today, but even more surprising was the fact that she found herself considering it; and until today, she hardly ever gave her instructions a second thought. She wasn't sure exactly what was going on, except for one thing: the life she once knew was no more.

The instructions she awoke with after a particularly hurtful test, were very unusual indeed. 'There is nothing more I can do for you,' they said, 'You must flee from here as soon as possible. In the safe you will find some clothes and enough money for you to support yourself at first, the code to the safe is 2127693. Try to mingle with humans and don't reveal your origin or abilities to anyone. GENOM will almost certainly come after you, so it would be best if you leave Japan and move to China, European Union, or USA, where GENOM holds much less power. Good luck.'

However, the girl found that she wasn't sure how to go about fleeing the laboratory, which wasn't surprising, since this very idea would have seemed completely monstrous to the girl just a day ago. She quickly found that with some effort she could turn her head just enough to see the shackles that kept her chained to the wall, meaning that they won't be able to hold her should she choose to break free, and bulletproof glass wall and titanium alloy door of her room won't be able to stop her either, but… What then? The people who were studying her would surely try to stop her, and she didn't think she could harm them even if her life depended upon it.

Fortunately for the girl, this part of her escape was sorted by itself, for even as she thought about what to do, the sounds of some kind of commotion reached her room, and soon after, the loud-speakers begin repeating their message. The girl didn't fully get the message, expect that her… sibling, for the lack of better term, did something bad.

"_Probably the very same thing I was instructed to do,"_ the girl realized sadly, and this realization only reinforced her doubts in whether she should really proceed with her instructions.

The effect this had on humans who were with her, however, was spectacular. Within a couple of minutes, they quickly gathered their belongings, and throwing a few wary glances at their seemingly-helpless test subject, rushed out of the room, leaving the girl alone. It was then when the girl finally made up her mind: if she wasn't alone who was instructed to flee from this place, then perhaps there was a good reason why she received her instructions?

With her mind set, it took the girl only a couple of minutes to get free from her shackles and then to cut an opening in the bulletproof glass wall that separated her room from the one where the other people used to be. Locating the thing called "safe" and opening it took a bit longer, but eventually the girl did it, and the next moment she was joyfully putting on a black dress and light brown shoes. Wearing dress and particularly shoes for the first time in her short life made the girl feel a little uncomfortable, but it paled next to the fact that she was wearing clothes like the humans do!

For the next half a minute after the initial joy passed, the girl stood in the middle of a deserted room, looking around confusedly, as she was unsure where to go now. But then she remembered the laboratory map with escape route marked on it that came along with her instructions, and quickly evoked it in her memory.

With this done, the rest of escape went so smooth that the girl couldn't help being surprised about that, as she quietly walked through deserted corridors…

* * *

Her eyes narrowed, as she was looking at five figures approaching her, blocking the exit. Though humanoid in appearance, their large metallic-blue bodies couldn't be mistaken for those of humans. BU-55C Combat Boomers. The young woman only smirked as they approached her: she has lost count of how many of them she cut into pieces during the countless training battles.

Four of the boomers continued advancing at her, a fatal mistake on their part. At first glance they looked unarmed, but in fact in addition to their superhuman strength and heavy armor, each boomer had a powerful mouth-mounted laser cannon and torso-mounted heat cannon, which would have been their only chance of winning if only their instruction haven't been clear: restrain the target without causing any damage to it.

There was a sudden roar of engines, as the boomers activated their back-mounted thrusters and charged at their target, but she was ready for them. In a blink, the first two boomers lost their heads even the woman jumped to the ceiling and hang there, allowing no longer controllable boomers to fly beneath her.

The other two boomers, quickly changed their trajectory, and by the time their opponent dealt with the first two, they were almost upon her. This first of them, however, was quickly shown that almost wasn't near enough, for before he could try to seize his target, he found that his arms and legs were cut of his body. The next moment, the invisible force thrown the boomer back towards the floor even as his head was finally separated from the body, putting an end to any conscious thoughts.

The woman took a moment to admire her handiwork, before she realized that she was missing something. Where was the fourth boomer?

Her question was answered almost immediately, as the last attacking boomer grabbed the woman from behind, having passed beneath her rather then attacking her head-to-head. However, the woman quickly proved this tactics to be equally fruitless, for it took her but a glance at the arms that were holding her to cut them off. Afterwards, the woman proceeded to jump back to the floor. The boomer also landed, but hesitated: with his arms, the only means of capturing his target without harming it cut off, he didn't know how to proceed with his instructions. The woman was quickly to put an end to his dilemma, however, as the next moment the boomer's head was cut off his body, which then proceeded to fall to the floor where it remained lying motionless.

With the last attacking boomer dealt with, the woman turned to the exit, where the fifth boomer stood still. At first glance, the woman thought him to be a BU-55C just like the other four, but now she realized that she was wrong: by now, boomer's both arms were burst open, and a thick mass of cables ran from each arm to the corridor's walls, seemingly merging with them.

Meanwhile in laboratory's IT center, IT operatives finally managed to bring security systems partially online, and they were now observing the same scene through security cameras.

"I can't believe they brought this thing here!" One of IT operatives said, unable to keep his voice from shaking.

"It figures," the other commented, "I guess it takes a monster to beat a monster."

Back in the corridor, the woman was warily approaching the boomer of the type she didn't recognize, but even so, the attack came from where she didn't expect it: a sharp-ended cable suddenly shot from the ceiling, striking at the woman's neck from behind. The boomer's AI, far more advanced then that of the ordinary combat boomers, had information about the woman's all strong and weak points, and he knew exactly how to attack her: for all her power, the woman was unable to affect things she didn't see, and while her organic skin made her immune to fusion, her internal systems were nevertheless vulnerable to his attacks. And now when he was connected to them, he could destroy them in a moment if only his instructions didn't tell otherwise.

He noted that the woman quickly recovered from initial pain and made a step towards him, then another, with her red eyes blazing with hatred. The cable's pull slowed her down somewhat, but no more then that. With a mental command, the boomer made lumps of metal come from the walls to block the woman's path, but she cut them into pieces in a matter of seconds and continued to advance at him…

Back in laboratory's IT center, IT operatives continued monitoring the situation with growing worry.

"At this rate, Number 1 is going to destroy the Fusion Boomer! What are they thinking of in the Tower?!"

It was then when instruction from GENOM Tower has finally broken through interference.

'Fusion Boomer number 117 directly connected BU-01V to your network. You are to retake control over it.'

"None of our override codes are working! This thing went rogue, don't you in the Tower get it?!"

'High priority override code has been sent to you. Don't ask any questions, just load the code into BU-01V. Understood?"

"Understood, sir."

The woman smirked as she finally reached her opponent, and within moments, the Fusion Boomer was cut into pieces, just like all the obstacles he tried to create in her way. The woman stepped over the remains of the Fusion Boomer, but suddenly froze even as more figures entered the corridor: a man who looked to be in his late twenties, surrounded by four more BU-55C Combat Boomers. And as the man approached her, the woman's head suddenly dropped in submission.

"You gave us quite some troubles, Lucy," the man said coldly, but mentally added, _"But as for me, you actually did me a favour."_

* * *

For a several minutes, the girl just stood there, stunned by a scene that opened before her. Everywhere she looked where bright colored glowing signs and pictures; the girl didn't even know that so many colors existed in the world! And even more numerous were sparks of white that were lining every building, every street; with dark sky overhead covered with clouds and thick smoke, it looked as though heaven wasn't good enough for the stars any longer and they decided to come down to earth.

"Ah! These lights are so beautiful!" The girl exclaimed when the speech finally returned to her, "But where does Nana go from here?"


	2. Escapee

Author's notes:

Before starting this chapter, I would like to thank **Cylon One** for being the first (as so far, the only one) to review this story of mine. Domo arigato gozaimasu, thank you very much!

However, since you know more about Bubblegum Crisis than you do of Elfin Lied, I would like to warn you ahead that the first chapters of this story of mine will focus on introducing Nana into Bubblegum Crisis reality, and during the first four chapters, most characters from Bubblegum Crisis will appear somewhat sparsely. Knight Sabers will come into action around chapter five, but once it happens, they will play a major (and in some cases – main) part throughout the rest of this story. I can only hope that you will be able bear with this story of mine until your favorite characters will make an appearance, and on my part, I will try to update this story of mine as quickly as possible.

**Escapee**

At the level 66 of GENOM Tower, two men entered the office of Director Kakuzawa, the man in charge of Project V. Though both were nervous, and not without a reason, both were hiding it well.

For half a minute or so after entering, both just stood before Director Kakuzawa in uneasy silence, until one of them, brown-haired with barely noticeable stubble, spoke:

"Father, I'm sorry…"

"You are sorry? What makes you think I care about your pathetic excuses?" Though Director Kakuzawa didn't raise his voice, it was noticeably seething with anger, "I want explanations of what has happened there!"

"Data loss makes it impossible to determine for sure," the brown-haired man replied, "But we believe that the recent events weren't a normal case of a boomer going rogue. It appears that some powerful virus was launched into the Research Laboratory 3's network, which coupled with some kind of ECM, temporary broke OMS control over Number 1."

"When we realized that," the other man said; this one had black hair and was wearing glasses, "I figured out that sending a direct signal from OMS would likely bring Number 1 back under our control, which was why I took the responsibility for authorizing the use of a Fusion Boomer for stopping Number 1…"

"While my worthless son was doing nothing, naturally," Director Kakuzawa commented off-handedly, and the mentioned person had to try his best not to show his displeasure; naturally, he didn't like how quick his father has forgotten the fact that it was him who was working tirelessly on Project V, while his colleague was babysitting Number 7.

"However," Director Kakuzawa continued, with ire suddenly redirected at the black-haired man, "I am highly disappointed at your allowing Number 7 to escape, especially considering that it was under your supervision."

"I assumed that responsibility for Number 7 was taken from me when you ordered its termination," the black-haired man replied calmly, "And in addition to that, Number 7's escape was never reported; we discovered that Number 7 went missing only after restraining Number 1, and by that time, it was long gone."

"You should have checked it earlier!" Director Kakuzawa didn't bother to keep anger from his voice.

"But even so, I don't see why the escape of Number 7, a boomer that was to be terminated anyway is such a big problem…" the black-haired man commented, but it served only to make Director Kakuzawa angrier.

"You fool! We can't risk anyone getting their hands on Vector System! We are still only on the testing stage, but Vector System can potentially be used for making an ultimate weapon. And it should be in our hands, not anyone else's! Get out, both of you! Incompetents!"

Both men were quick to retreat to the door, but while the brown-haired man didn't hesitate to leave the room, his black-haired colleague lingered long enough to overhear Director Kakuzawa shouting into the cell phone:

"Prepare BU-33-CX2 and four BU-55C at once! No, you CAN'T ask, just do what you are told to! I take the full responsibility for this."

"_BU-33-CX2, huh?"_

* * *

Nana slowly walked down the narrow street, notably darker then the ones she found herself at after leaving the laboratory. When she first found herself on laboratory's roof, a good part of this place called "MegaTokyo" was opened before her eyes, but as she descended down into the city, her admiration quickly changed into confusion as she realized that she was hopelessly lost. And what were all those places Papa was talking about?

Descending from the laboratory's roof and then putting as much distance as possible between herself and her former home turned out to be easy enough: she merely calculated the distance to the nearest building and pushed off the laboratory's roof with her Vectors, making a seemingly impossible jump. Though Nana remembered that she had to keep her abilities in secret, she figured that getting away from people who would recognize her at sight was definitely a priority, and she quickly achieved this goal by jumping from one building's roof to another.

Once she put was she deemed to be safe distance between herself and laboratory, Nana simply called an elevator to come down from the building's roof and into the city's streets. But once there, she was immediately lost among towering skyscrapers and seemingly endless streets. Now when evening has already became night, the streets of MegaTokyo were mostly deserted, except for cars that rushed through them with some regularity, and despite being surrounded with activity, Nana suddenly couldn't help feeling lonelier then ever. Oh, how much she wished Papa was here with her…

As Nana was slowly making her way in no particular direction, she kept looking around, trying to find at least something familiar in this alien world, but in vain: with very little information about the world imprinted in her mind, and her own experiences limited to the laboratory's room, Nana was in complete loss about what to do now.

At first, she didn't notice as her surroundings were slowly changing, but then the changes became obvious even to her: the buildings were getting lower and darker, some even with visible signs of damage about them, the streets – narrower and poorly lit, many lacking definite sidewalks. Of course, Nana wasn't entirely sure about their purpose, but as cars didn't seem to go to them, she quickly figured that walking on them was a lot safer. But then again, Nana realized that it has been a while since she last saw a car: this area of the city appeared to be notably more deserted then the one where the laboratory was located…

But unbeknown to Nana, she was neither as safe, nor as alone as it seemed to be, for somebody has already taken a keen interest in finding her…

* * *

A woman stood at one of the buildings' flat roof, seemingly enjoying the view, which would have seem rather unusual to a possible observer, but wouldn't raise a particular suspicion either. Dressed in orange overall, complete with a cap of the same color, she looked like some low-level employee, perhaps a janitor or a delivery person. The woman was, however, much more then that: and even as her eyes seemed to scan the scenery before her, her vision was covered by a dozen shifting mini-screens, which displayed different parts of MegaTokyo on a different scales. The abbreviated version of infamous Black Box, which the woman possessed, took GENOM quite a lot effort and money spent on briberies to get, but now it was paying off, as the woman's ability to view MegaTokyo from orbital satellites allowed her to locate her target with relative ease.

'The target is located, transferring its position data to all units. All units, proceed with eliminating the target.'

* * *

Completely unaware of this, Nana continued through the labyrinth of dark streets; she heard distant sounds of some kind, and having nothing better to do, decided to head in their direction. Eventually, she came to a small square, notable for a neon sign that hang over the entrance to the building in front of Nana.

"Hot Legs" Nana read aloud, slightly tilting her head to the side in confusion; while she knew what each of these words meant, the word combination didn't make much sense to her. But the sounds, which Nana figured to be some strange kind of speech, were definitely coming from the inside…

_(Did you know?) Visualizing illusions_

Nana considered going inside, but quickly decided against this idea. There were definitely humans inside, and while Nana was dying to have someone to talk to, she was rather sheepish about facing humans at the same time. What should she say? How should she act? Nana just didn't know.

_(Did you dream?) Were my way of life_

"_Besides"_, Nana reasoned, _"Considering that I can hear everything from the outside, how loud would these sounds be if I was inside?"_ She shuddered to think of it.

_(Did you lie?) The howling wind strips them all away (no, no, no, my heart)._

Nana's ears could indeed pick up every word, and although their meaning was for the most part lost for the girl, she found herself drawn into this strange kind of speech…

_Big city, standing here we're Heart to heart,_

_Children lost, seeking love out in the dark._

_Big city, Day by day_

_Will you ever ease the pain_

_Tears won't take away?_

_Tonight… Hurricane!_

_I want to… Hurricane!_

_Spend this lonely night loving you (loving you)._

_Tonight… Hurricane!_

_Touch me… Hurricane!_

_Show me your love with TOUCH!_

_Burning touch._

'The target is sighted, proceeding with eliminating it.'

Nana turned to the sudden ripping sounds just in time to see a man who approached her getting torn into shreds, as a much larger metallic-blue body unpacked itself from its human disguise, revealing its owner as a BU-55C Combat Boomer. As Nana was starring at the painfully familiar figure in astonishment, the boomer's torso plates slid aside, revealing a dozen of white slots beneath. And the next moment streams of fire poured from them onto Nana…


	3. Tonight Hurricane!

Author's notes:

Before starting this chapter, I would like to thank **Cylon One** for his continuing attention and support, not to mention correcting a certain mistake of mine. Domo arigato gozaimasu, thank you very much! I believe that this chapter of this story of my will address your thoughts and speculations better then any author's notes would, so without farther ado…

**Tonight… Hurricane!**

"Why are you doing this?" Nana demanded, as she landed on her feet before the stone wall, which was now partially melted by intense heat.

Avoiding getting hit by the boomer's heat cannon was far easier then it has been in the closed space of the laboratory room: all Nana had to do was to push herself off the ground with her Vectors, then use them to get hold of one the nearby ledges and thus slow her descent, turning what would have otherwise been a fall into a perfect landing.

The boomer didn't reply, instead, he activated his back-mounted thrusters and charged at Nana; although the boomer's A.I. was somewhat primitive in many ways, it was still programmed with some basic combat tactics, and the boomer quickly realized inefficiency of his heat cannon at this range and decided to engage his target in close combat.

But unbeknown to the boomer, this decision was a fatal mistake, as it fully exposed him to Nana's Vectors. Or at least it would have been a fatal mistake, if Nana didn't hesitate. Though for a few moments the boomer was fully within range of her Vectors, Nana only starred at his swift approach.

_"He doesn't listen! I… I have to run!"_

It was no sooner thought than done, and the next moment Nana shot vertically upwards, narrowly dodging the punch the boomer threw at her. This time, instead of getting back to the ground Nana continued her ascend by getting hold of nearby ledges with her Vectors and pushing herself off them. And within but a few moments, Nana was standing on the building's roof.

Her plan has been simple: once she is on the high ground, she will use her Vectors to push the boomer back to the ground, and by the time he recovers, she will be long gone. Good luck with finding her again in this labyrinth of streets!

The next moment, however, Nana realized that she doesn't hear the sound of boomer's thrusters. Has he already given up or something?

Nana stepped to the roof's edge to see what her opponent was up to at about the same time when a powerful laser beam struck the upper part of the building, causing a part of its wall and roof to collapse. And unfortunately for Nana, this part also included the part of the roof she was currently standing at.

The next few seconds were absolute chaos for Nana, as she was desperately trying to get hold of something, anything with her Vectors. But combination of surprise and quick fall made it impossible for her to concentrate her attention on anything, and within a few seconds she painfully landed back on the asphalted ground among the stone rubbles.

The fall was long enough to be fatal for the most humans, and even though Nana was much stronger then that, it was painful for her nevertheless, stunning her for a few seconds. But for good or ill, the events that lead to Nana's fall didn't went unnoticed.

'This is Patrol Chopper 69. There was something like an explosion in Sector 8 of Tinsel City; we are going there to investigate.'

'Roger that, Patrol Chopper 69.'

Meanwhile, Nana somewhat recovered from her fall and looked up, only to see BU-55C standing over her. She was still prone and there was maybe a meter between them, and the boomer already had his torso plates opened, revealing the white slots of his heat cannon. Even with her Vectors, there was no way for Nana to get away quickly enough to dodge the boomer's heat cannon this time. There was but one way for her to get out of this alive, and Nana knew it too well…

**(Flashback)**

"Why are you doing this?" Nana demanded again, but like the first two times, the boomer didn't seem to pay her words any attention.

But if before she tried her best to sound confident in her ability to avoid any attack the boomer could throw at her, this time she couldn't keep desperation out of her voice, and not without a good reason: after some ten minutes of jumping and dodging, the boomer finally managed to corner her. The boomer himself stood a little over meter away from her with his torso plates opened, ready to fire his deadly heat cannon.

'Nana, destroy it!'

"_Papa!"_

The sound of Papa's voice, although distant, lifted Nana's spirits, but instead of attacking the boomer with her Vectors she used them to push herself off the floor, jumping upwards and to the right just as the boomer fired his heat cannon.

At first it seemed like her maneuver worked and she managed to dodge the boomer's attack again, but the next moment a pain far more terrible then anything she has ever experienced shot through Nana's body even as her jump was broken and she fell to the floor.

For several seconds, the immense pain kept Nana completely paralyzed, but eventually she gathered enough will to try to get up, though only to fall back to the floor with pain only intensifying. After a few more unsuccessful attempts, the best Nana managed to do was to turn over on her back, and she could only look in horror at the source of her pain: a melted stump at where her left leg once was.

The next moment, a new source of pain was added to it, as the boomer, who took his time approaching his now-helpless opponent, stepped on her right arm, crushing it under his heavy metallic foot. With tears of pain in her eyes, Nana could only look up at her tormentor, who leaned over her with his heat cannon ready for the final shot; the immense pain she was in wouldn't allow her to concentrate on using her Vectors, even if she choose to do it now.

"No… This cannot be happening. Papa… Papa, save me."

"Enough. Number Seven is obviously unable to continue combat."

At the sound of the voice, BU-55C stepped away from Nana, even as new footsteps approached her. And the next moment another figure leaned over Nana, a figure she would recognize regardless of the state she is in.

"Papa…"

"Nana…"

He kneeled before her, and she could feel something cold pressed against her neck. It was surprising that she could still feel little things like that when her world seemed to consist entirely of pain.

"Nana, it is going to hurt a little, but everything will be okay in the end. Trust me, okay?" He realized the meaninglessness of his words even as they left his mouth; there was no way Nana could feel more pain then the one she already was in.

"Okay… I trust you, Papa…" Nana responded weakly; as pain seemed to be only increasing, she found it harder and harder to concentrate on listening, let alone speaking.

The next moment she felt a sudden jolt, as Electromagnetic Pulse went through her body, which, however, paled comparing the pain she was already in. And then, the merciful darkness finally engulfed her…

* * *

She didn't know how long she spent in seemingly endless darkness, or when the conscious thoughts returned to her, only that she suddenly heard a familiar calling her.

"It's okay, Nana. You can open your eyes now."

A little hesitantly she did so, and saw that she was lying on a metal table in some room, with Papa standing over her. For several seconds she was just starring at him, the most beautiful sight she has ever seen, before she suddenly recalled the events of last… _"How long ago was it?.."_ in her mind.

But as Nana looked over her body, she almost immediately noticed with some surprise that her left leg and right arm were fully intact. A little hesitantly a first, she moved the toes of her left leg, then, getting more confident, lifted it and held up it in the air.

"We had to replace your arm and leg, Nana," the man Nana called "Papa" explained, as he watched Nana's confused expression, "But they should be as good as old ones. Are they?"

"Yes, yes!" Nana replied cheerfully, as she put her leg down; the past pain was quickly forgotten now when she felt completely fine again, and even more importantly, Papa was here with her!

He studied Nana's happy face for a few long seconds, before finally asking the question he wasn't sure he wanted to hear an answer for.

"Why didn't you defend yourself, Nana?"

In a blink, the happiness was gone from Nana's face as she looked up at her "Papa" in worry.

"Are you angry with Nana, Papa?"

"Angry? Of course I am! The tests indicate that your Vectors have developed to the range of four meters, and they are capable of cutting titanium alloy BU-55C are made of with relative ease. And yet you refused to attack it. Why, Nana?"

"I… I am sorry Papa. But he was just like me, wasn't he? Why did we have to fight? Why did you want me to kill him?"

"Nana," the man's voice was forcedly gentle, as that of a father who tries to explain some simple truth to his child, "BU-55C are nothing like you. They have very limited A.I. and don't show any signs of personality or individuality. Essentially, BU-55C are nothing but weapons made with a single purpose of fighting and killing. You shouldn't view them the same way you view humans or yourself."

"But I still don't, I don't want to kill," Nana replied in a very small voice, even as she mentally asked herself, _"Besides, am I not the same? Why was I born… to kill?"_

**(/Flashback)**

Instead of striking at the boomer with her Vectors, Nana closed her eyes, preparing for the inevitable. At the distance, she could hear the sounds continuing, as if nothing was amiss, and she found it both sad and strangely comforting that these humans will be able to go on with their lives regardless of what would happen to her…

_(Did you know?) I could never share the pain  
_

_(Did you dream?) Burning in your heart_

_(Did you lie?) If you keep saying everything is all right._

_(Did you know?) No more secrets in the pouring rain_

_(Did you dream?) Keeping us apart_

_(Did you lie?) Tell me how to help you through the night (sin, sin, sing your heart)._

_Big city, torn and tattered Heart to heart_

_We're tired of dancing around in the night._

_Big city, empty Day by day,_

_We long for even a little warmth._

Nana was just lying there, ready for pain and inevitable end, but instead of it, a sound of rapid machinegun fire suddenly filled her ears. She opened her eyes just in time to see BU-55C stumbling backwards, with sickly orange liquid oozing from his chest before his torso plates slid back in their place, covering now-useless heat cannon. And as Nana raised her eyes upwards, she saw a large blue shape of an ADP Combat Chopper hovering above the square.

For a moment the helicopter just hovered there, but then its Vulcan cannons came back to life, firing round after round of bullets at BU-55C. But as Nana returned her gaze back to her enemy, she saw that bullets could but graze the boomer's armored body; with the boomer's torso plates back in their place, his titanium alloy skin seemed to lack any vulnerable spots whatsoever.

For a few seconds the boomer completely ignored the fire aimed at him, as he just stood there with his small red eyes locked with Nana's. Then his back-mounted thrusters suddenly came to life, and in a blink, the boomer turned around and disappeared in one of the alleys, leaving Nana stunned on the ground, and helicopter's crewmen cursing: their machine was too large to follow the boomer through the narrow streets of Tinsel City, and the fact that the boomer stubbornly refused to show on their radar made any kind of pursuit all but impossible.

'This is Patrol Chopper 69. We have a rogue BU-55C in Sector 8 of Tinsel City, but the damned thing doesn't show on our radar! What the hell is going on here? And send some ground troops here at last!'

* * *

The woman frowned as she was watching the combat scene from different angles. First, Unit 1 cut off direct communication with her, which wasn't a good sign in itself, but then an ADP Combat Chopper showed up, and Unit 1 choose to flee rather then proceeding with his instructions, and with communication cut off, she couldn't remind him of them.

The woman's information indicated 90 percent possibility that the target will try to flee rather then to take battle, and because of it, she positioned her team to cut off target's most likely escape routes rather then to attack it at once. But now, with an unexpected obstacle which was the A.D. Police, this plan has backfired upon her. All she could do was to try to salvage what was left of it.

'Unit 2, remove the threat of A.D. Police, then proceed with exterminating the target. Units 3 and 4, approach and engage the target, be ready to cut off target's escape route if it tires to escape from Unit 2. Proceed with your orders.'

* * *

'Alright, we are coming to you, Patrol Chopper 69,' a young red-haired man spoke into a radio as he drove his Road Chaser through the streets of MegaTokyo.

With his modestly muscular frame, that looked even less impressive in the suit he wore, the man would hardly make an impression if it wasn't for five ADP Troop Transports and an ADP Chopper Truck that followed his lead. For in fact, the man was none other but Detective Daley Wong, the second highest ranking field officer in A.D. Police.

'Roger that, Detective Daley Wong,' Patrol Chopper 69's pilot replied even as his co-pilot continued to monitor the radar in futile attempt to see any signs of boomer on it.

Two Patrol Chopper 69's crewmen never saw another BU-55C Combat Boomer, as he landed on the building's roof some distance away from them. And the next moment a beam of light pierced MegaTokyo's night sky, going straight through Patrol Chopper 69. It was immediately followed by a blazing flower blooming above MegaTokyo, as Patrol Chopper 69 exploded in mid air, with its crewmen never knowing what hit them.

'Daley, we've lost contact with Patrol Chopper 69!' A feminine voice exclaimed over the radio a few seconds later.

'Damn it! And what about our radars? Did you catch anything, Nene?'

'Well, I HAVE been trying to localize the boomer's signal for some time now, but at looks like somebody is blocking it through the Net. There is… Well…'

The girl named Nene went quiet. Technically, there WAS something she could do, but tracing and disabling ECM signal through the Net wasn't something she was legally supposed to be able to do. She wasn't supposed to discuss things like that through ADP's communication network either, that was certain.

'Do your best, Nene.'

'Ryokai!' a data analyst with bright red hair exclaimed cheerfully back in ADP Headquarters, even as she reached into her bag and took a CD labeled with bright pink marker as "Nene's Special" out of it.

She really couldn't help it: she just didn't have enough time to handle things the nice way, and it meant that something was SO gonna get fried! Yup, you could bet on that!

* * *

Meanwhile, in Hot Legs night club, the events that took place just outside its wall went completely unnoticed; the sounds of distant shots and nearby building's partial collapse were hopelessly lost in loud music and singing.

_Big city, standing here we're Heart to heart,_

_Children lost, seeking love out in the dark._

_Big city, Day by day_

_Will you ever ease the pain_

_Tears won't take away?_

_Tonight… Hurricane!_

_I want to… Hurricane!_

_Spend this lonely night loving you (loving you)._

_Tonight… Hurricane!_

_Touch me… Hurricane!_

_Show me your love with TOUCH!_

_Burning touch._

_Give me touch._

_Burning touch._

Just as the song ended, one of the men in the crowd that gathered in the night club let out a regretful sigh and turned his eyes from a beautiful and very provocatively dressed singer to his beeping watch, which was blinking with red light.

"_Yeah, so long for the night out. At least, I got to hear this song through for once."_

The was only one reason why such a high ranking field officer as him would be bothered with alert while he was off duty, and this reason was a rogue boomer…

* * *

Meanwhile, outside the club, Nana finally got up from the ground, still shocked by everything that has just happened, and in such a brief space of time at that. And just in time too, for even as Nana was looking around in confusion, uncertain about what to do now, she heard a sudden roar of engines as another BU-55C Combat Boomer dropped at her from the top of the ruined building.

_"Is there no end of them?"_

Nana felt like crying, but instead she lunged forward and dropped to the ground, narrowly avoiding getting crushed under the boomer's metallic feet. And the next moment she repeated her earlier maneuver: pushed herself off the ground with her Vectors to make a swift and otherwise impossibly high jump, then use them to get hold of one the nearby ledges and thus slow her descent as she landed to the ground and turned to face a new opponent. And as it turned out, Nana's intuition didn't fail her, for as soon as she turned to face the boomer she immediately noticed a melted spot on the asphalted ground: the only result of the boomer's attempt to catch her with his heat cannon.

Like the previous one, this boomer quickly realized inefficiency of his heat cannon at this range and activated his back-mounted thrusters to charge at Nana, but suddenly froze in the air, as if he was held back by some invisible force. Nana has had enough.

The boomer's surprise at his sudden inability to approach his target lasted for but a few seconds, but by the time it passed, the same invisible force that held the boomer back threw him backwards, crushing him hard against the wall of one of nearby buildings. But even the blow was monstrously powerful, it mostly did only a slight surface damage to the boomer's heavily armored body. The wall proved to be far less durable, however, and it broke under the boomer's weight coupled with strength of the blow, and the boomer fell through it into some forsaken storage area.

For a several seconds the boomer just lay there, as his A.I. needed time to adjust to very sudden change of situation and position: a state as close to being stunned as a BU-55C could experience. And when the boomer finally recovered enough to get up and step out into the square, his target was already gone, forcing the boomer to send a signal back to his leader in order to reconfirm his target's current location. But even as the boomer received the information he requested…

* * *

Daley almost startled, as the radar, which remained unhelpfully quit until now, suddenly screamed full alarm. Nene performed her unofficial job quickly and with top-notch effectiveness.

"Cute," Daley muttered under his breath, as a single look at the radar confirmed his worst suspicions: it wasn't a single rogue boomer they were dealing with; instead the radar showed four unregistered boomers in the nearest area.

Two of the boomers were very close, and apparently were moving in their direction, while the third on the contrary was much farther and moving away from them. And the last boomer was…

"Oh, crap!" Though known for his mild temper, Daley couldn't help swearing mildly as he realized where the last boomer was, 'Units Alpha and Beta, remain on this position and be ready to stop approaching boomers as soon as they get there; seek and destroy them if they change their course. Unit Delta, take position in point 8-H16. Unit Air, try to chase the boomer that is moving away to Unit Delta as soon as they are in position.'

With the orders given, Daley turned the Road Chaser's turbocharger on, and with a pair of airscoops and a spoiler extending from its body, the car dashed ahead at the speed nearing 300 kilometers per hour…

* * *

At his twenty-six years, Detective Leon McNichol was quite certain that there wasn't a thing left in the world that could surprise him. But even he didn't expect to see a BU-55C Combat Boomer standing at some distance away from him as he exited Hot Legs night club.

The boomer, on his part, paid zero attention to Leon, as his A.I. seemed to be preoccupied with his back-mounted thrusters: some of the engines looked damaged and didn't seem to be working properly, and the boomer needed to synchronize his engines in order to fly straight. That was it. Leon didn't like to be ignored, including by combat boomers.

Wasting only a couple of seconds to put his shades on, Leon drew his weapon of choice: .60 caliber "Earth Shaker" revolver. Two shots quickly put an end to the boomer's dilemma, as they hit two more engines, disabling the poorly-protected systems.

In a truly heroic pose with a self-confident smile upon his face, Leon waited for the boomer to turn, before putting the final bullet right between his eyes. He really felt like he was trying to take a tank down with bow and arrows. His smile became somewhat strained.

_"Why can't everything happen like it does in those old movies for once?"_

Even with his back-mounted thrusters all but disabled, the boomer was still inhumanly fast, the fact that Leon became keenly aware of as he dashed for his bike, which was still parked just outside Hot Legs night club. Leon wasn't really sure what he was trying to accomplish, for while he still got to his bike much quicker then the boomer caught up with him, it was clear that he didn't have enough time to start it up. Well, at least he got to reload his Earth Shaker while he was running… For what it was worth. At this point it really looked like he tried to be a hero one time too many.

But luckily for Leon, the next moment an ADP Road Chaser suddenly darted out of one of the alleys, and before the boomer could reach him, the car's door opened and a loud shot was fired out of it. The shot stopped the boomer dead in his tracks, and the reason for it was plain to see: there was now a hole going through the boomer's body where railgun shell went through it.

On his part, Leon didn't hesitate to take advantage of a temporary disabled boomer and immediately stepped towards him, quickly emptying his Earth Shaker's entire magazine right into the boomer's face at the point blank range, managing to blast both of boomer's eyes out. The combined force of three successive shots was enough to knock severely damaged boomer out of balance, and the next second he fell backwards to the asphalted ground, where he remained lying still, with sickly orange liquid oozing from his chest and head wounds.

"Aw, why do you always get the last shot, Leon-chan?"

"Well," Leon took his shades off and glanced at his red-haired partner who was peeking out of the car, "I guess this comes with being a hero and all. But this time I really owe you one, Daley."

"Well, you know, you can repay me for this later tonight…"

"Ugh, that's not what I meant, Daley! And anyway, what's going on?"

"Oh right, we still have some three rogue boomers to take care of! By the way, the big wigs in head office want you to take command of Delta squad. Rendezvous with them in point 8-H16. And here, take this…"

As Leon came closer, Daley handed him the railgun he shot the boomer with. It was too large and heavy to comfortably carry it while off duty, but the railgun was far more powerful weapon then even Leon's "Earth Shaker", and it was one of the few weapons in A.D. Police's arsenal that could penetrate BU-55C's armor with relative ease.

"…I have a spare one in case I need it."

Leon doubted he would, though; while Daley was an excellent shooter himself, he always said that he doesn't particularly like shooting things down, and that he has had enough of it back when he was a frontline officer. He would still never hesitate to personally come to friend's aid, though, as today's events perfectly illustrated.

* * *

_"Unit 2 lost, Unit 1 is leaving the combat zone, Units 3 and 4 unable to enter combat zone due to A.D. Police's resistance…"_

The mission was in shambles, and the woman understood it. Her orders for such an occurrence were clear: return back to GENOM Tower. There were always more and better boomers to be sent after the rogue BU-07V, as long as she would be able to track her through the satellites.

The woman turned to leave, but suddenly froze as she saw a large black battlesuit standing on the roof with her. She immediately identified it as a G-1 GENOM Battlesuit, and considering that its pilot didn't identify himself, his hostile intentions were obvious. A quick consultation with her tactical computer told the woman that her chance of survival this encounter was approximately 1.5 percent, a knowledge that evoked some unfamiliar emotion in her.

The woman didn't waste time to dwell on it, though, and the next time she jumped sidewards in attempt to get out of battlesuit's line of fire and reach the roof's edge at the same time. But the battlesuit pilot seemed to predict her maneuver before she even performed it, and two laser shots caught the woman in mid air, breaking her jump and making her fall to the roof.

The woman slowly got to her feet…

_"Serious damage in left side, left arm and leg's movement functions are down by 65 percent."_

…But the moment did it, four more laser shots went through her chest, and she once again collapsed to the ground.

_"Critical damage in central area, movement functions disabled, system shutdown in 30 seconds…"_

The woman could only look up at her killer, who now stood over her, with one of his arms pointed at her head.

"I'm sorry," were the last words BU-33-CX2 heard, before the final two laser shots reduced her head into pieces.

* * *

In one of the darkest and all but unpopulated parts of so-called Tinsel City, an area that was devastated by the Great Quake of 2025 and was still partially in ruins, two men stood in long-forsaken church; their features darkened by the gloom of the room. The first man was critically studying the large crucifix that hang on the church's wall, seemingly all but ignoring the second one, who was left with nothing to do but to stare at the first man's back.

"So I understand you have failed…" The first man finally spoke in a matter-of-fact voice, neither angry, nor particularly surprised.

"Everything should have worked! If only that Kurama didn't…"

"…And we have some other V-type Cyberdroid at large instead of Lucy," the first man continued, seemingly paying no heed to what the other one was saying, "Can she be of any use to me?"

The second man thought over this question carefully before answering. At one hand, it would have been better if he has brought at least some good news to his superior, but on the other hand, he knew that lying to the first man would only result in his death the moment his lie will be discovered.

"I'm sorry, but I doubt it," the second man replied finally, "Throughout all the tests, she displayed extreme aversion towards killing and fighting in general, and even should it change, her… state of mind makes it unlikely that she will appreciate your vision."

"Unlikely, huh?" The man gave another critical look to the crucifix; he didn't like the Human Messiah much, he appeared to be too meek in his opinion, but then again, one shouldn't expect any more from a race as pathetic as humans are.

"I shall see about this… But first, I want Lucy to be mine. And you shall deliver her to me."

"Of course. I've already set another plan to get Lucy in motion. I will not fail this time, I guarantee it."

"I hope you won't. You are dismissed."

The second man was about to turn to leave, when the first one suddenly turned to face him, and the second man couldn't help shuddering: in the gloom of the room, a pair of slightly gleaming red eyes created a truly diabolic sight.

"And one final thing. I didn't forget everything you've done for me, but… Try not to disappoint me too much."

Author's notes:

Now when this chapter is done, I must admit that I am somewhat dissatisfied with how it turned out to be. Indeed, the action seems to be somewhat inconsistent, at least in my opinion, but at the same time I must admit that I honestly couldn't think of a better way to handle the situation; if I didn't add various behind the scenes parts, the entire chapter would make very little sense, I believe.

Also, I guess I somewhat surprised some of the readers by giving the leading role in this chapter to A.D. Police rather then Knight Sabers, and I would like to explain my reasons for doing so. Firstly, I would like to note that by this chapter, nearly two years have passed since the first OVA episode "Tinsel City", where we see BU-55C appearing on the streets of MegaTokyo for the first time. By now, A.D. Police would be far more capable of dealing with somewhat outdated BU-55C (in the third OVA episode "Blow Up", we can see A.D. Police bringing down BU-12B, who is superior to BU-55C in many ways, even though they pay a rather high price for this victory), and Sylia would be far less compelled to take Knight Saber on a free mission against BU-55C, especially at night, when Priss and Nene are at work, and Linna is sleeping (and probably not alone too). And secondly, since the rest of this story will mostly focus on Nana and Knight Sabers, with A.D. Police fading into the background for the most part (at least, that's how it most likely will be; I haven't planned everything thoroughly yet), I decided to give A.D. Police their chance to shine while they still had it; these hard-working frontline officers who pay high price for every boomer they bring down deserve some spotlight, don't they? And last but not least, I wanted to "save" Knight Sabers for the later confrontation… I hope you will stay tuned for it!

And finally, **Cylon One**, sorry for somewhat misleading you about my intentions in the previous chapter. The thing is that I just wanted to use "Tonight… Hurricane!" as a background song for this chapter (and the end of the previous one), but why add it as background song or a musical fill-in when I can have Priscilla perform it on the background :D (Like how it was done in the beginning of the first OVA episode "Tinsel City")


	4. Hunted

Author's notes:

Sorry for taking a little longer then usual to come up with the fourth chapter of this story of mine, but it is the longer chapter I've written so far, at least for this particular story of mine. It also was a very difficult chapter to write for the reasons other then its length, and the fact that I got no reviews for the previous chapter of this story of mine didn't help either… So, if you are reading this story of mine, I would like to let you know that I will very much appreciate it if you review this chapter of this story of mine. Even negative/critical reviews are better then none, because getting no reviews for the chapter makes me wonder if anyone really read it through.

**Hunted**

BU-55C Combat Boomer ran through the maze of Tinsel City's narrow streets, trying to shake off two Fire-Bee Minichoppers that pursued him; with his mouth-mounted laser not yet recharged, the boomer was all but helpless against aerial vehicles.

"Steady!"

But turning another corner, the boomer found himself in front of an ADP squad…

"Fire!"

…And almost immediately, half-dozen heavy railgun shells stuck the boomer's body, blowing the powerful machine backwards where it remained lying still.

"Detective Leon McNichol reporting, the last rogue boomer has been dealt with."

'Good job, Detective Leon McNichol.'

Detective Leon McNichol put away his radio and cast another look at the "rogue" boomer he just destroyed. He was experienced enough to see the signs that indicated that this wasn't a normal case of boomers going rogue, though GENOM would almost certainly explain it as such. At most they'd just find some fall guy to hold responsible for illegally releasing combat boomers on the streets of MegaTokyo, but they probably wouldn't even bother.

"What are they are up to?" Leon muttered under his breath, casting an angry glance at GENOM Tower, which was looming over the rest of MegaTokyo.

* * *

This time, all three of them couldn't help feeling nervous, and it showed as the elevator took them to the level 100 of GENOM Tower. They weren't rather unceremoniously ordered to come here just to make a report, the fact that become all too clear to them when they entered Chairman Quincy's office and saw an unassuming lavender-haired businesswoman who quietly stood somewhat to side from Chairman Quincy's desk. The woman was none other but Kate Madigan, Vice-President of Information and Chairman Quincy's unofficial right-hand woman after the death of Brian J. Mason. Very few things happened in GENOM without her knowledge, and they immediately realized that Chairman Quincy must have already received exhaustive information about the latest events from the source he would clearly consider as much more trustworthy then them. And they were right.

"Not only did you let a rogue V-type Boomer escape," Chairman Quincy began without any formalities the moment the three of them approached his desk, "But your rash thinking also cost GENOM BU-33-CX2 and Information Control Centre Number Three, not to mention four BU-55C Combat Boomers."

The loss of four BU-55C Combat Boomers was a trivial matter, but BU-33-CX2 would be extremely difficult to replace: it will take months to obtain another abbreviated version of a Black Box from USSD, and the boomer's final assembling will take weeks, and since GENOM and USSD technologies were never meant to work well together, it will probably involve quite a few work accidents as well.

As if this loss was not enough, Information Control Centre Number Three that worked on shielding the boomers Director Kakuzawa sent after the rogue BU-07V from A.D. Police's radars was devastated in a particularly brutal hacker attack: the centre's entire equipment was internally burned by some powerful virus, and while it could be replaced with relative ease, it all came down to a significant financial loss. The hacker's identity and location was impossible to determine, since it was impossible to extract any information from the centre's ruined equipment, which couldn't even be used for component parts, but many blamed the mercenary group known as Knight Sabers for this attack, since they were known for coming on A.D. Police's aid on numerous occasions in the past.

"Regardless," Chairman Quincy continued meanwhile, "I want to know what is being done in order to exterminate the rogue BU-07V. So… what is it?"

Though Chairman Quincy spoke no names, his eyes were firmly fixed on Director Kakuzawa, the man in charge of Project V, which was a clear indication of where he put the blame and responsibility for the latest events.

"Mr. Chairman," Director Kakuzawa tried his best to make his voice sound confident as he spoke, "By my orders, over two dozen disguised BU-55C Combat Boomers are searching for BU-07V throughout entire MegaTokyo. As soon as they find it, they…"

"No, they don't." Kate's voice was cold as steel as she interrupted Director Kakuzawa's speech.

"Nani?!"

"Due to your past mistakes, I took to monitoring your activities very carefully since the last incident. This particular order of yours was canceled for obvious reasons before anyone foolish enough even began executing it."

"You don't…"

Director Kakuzawa went quiet in time before too many words escaped his mouth, as he realized that Kate had every right she needed to cancel his orders. Being in charge of one of GENOM's major projects placed him in position where he got too used to people doing his every biding over the months, and now he almost forgot that these were GENOM's two highest ranking executives he was talking to.

"Do you realize the position you have almost put GENOM into?" Chairman Quincy's anger seemed to be only growing as he continued to glare at Director Kakuzawa, "The amount of public damage and civilian casualties such an operation would have resulted in would have gotten GENOM blamed for intentionally releasing a large number of combat boomers into streets of MegaTokyo, or would have put the safety of one of our primary products under question if we claim it was a mass case of boomers going rogue, either of which would have had a devastating effect on our sales. For the future, think matters through before making rash decisions. Now… Do any of you have any other bright solutions of this problem?"

Chairman Quincy didn't really expect any reasonable suggestions as he glanced over three men who stood before his desk: Director Kakuzawa and his two chief researchers. And for a good reason too: with the loss of BU-33-CX2, GENOM's own means of tracking and destroying the rogue BU-07V without causing major public damage and numerous civilian casualties were exhausted. However, when his glance ran over Director Kakuzawa's son, Yuu Kakuzawa, he was surprised to see the young man smiling confidently.

"Mr. Chairman," Yuu spoke as soon as he caught Chairman Quincy's eye, "In my research of various side abilities of V-type Boomers, I've recently stumbled upon a very interesting fact: apparently, all V-type Boomers have ability to sense each other over a certain distance, which we haven't determined precisely yet. With that being so, I have an unexpected proposal: why don't we use BU-01V for finding and exterminating BU-07V? With both of them being nearly indistinguishable from human beings, the whole operation is likely to go entirely unnoticed, let alone get linked to GENOM."

"Hm, interesting," as Yuu rightly stated, Chairman Quincy found this proposal rather unexpected indeed, "But can BU-01V perform this job?"

"Mr. Chairman, while BU-07V displayed a certain aversion towards combat we weren't able to correct despite all our efforts, BU-01V passed all combat tests excellently. I am fully confident in its ability to deal with the rogue BU-07V."

"Very well then. I leave all the necessary arrangements to you. You are dismissed. And… Good job, Kakuzawa."

Though Chairman Quincy addressed him by his surname, it was plain that his last words were meant for the son, not the father.

* * *

Chairman Quincy just sat there for some time after Director Kakuzawa and his two chief researchers exited his office, seemingly deep in thought, before he finally turned in his chair to look at the dark corner of his office; Chairman Quincy's office was illuminated that some parts of it were left in shadows, seemingly by accident, but in fact, on purpose. And now, as if on cue, a blonde man with barely noticeable stubble stepped out of one of such shadows. He looked to be somewhere in his middle or perhaps late twenties, and as if noticeable stubble wasn't enough, he was dressed in cheap business suit; in most other companies such complete disregard to appearance would mark the man as some low-level employee, a lowest ranking executive at the most, but in GENOM it actually meant that the man's position was important enough that he didn't have to care about personal appearance.

"So, I take it I am not longer needed, eh?" The man asked as he met Chairman Quincy's gaze.

"Wrong," Chairman Quincy waited for a few seconds to keep the man wondering about the unexpected reply for a while, before farther elaborating on this matter, "Kakuzawa junior's plan was rather interesting, but he didn't take one important factor into account. Like his father, he doesn't seem to fully realize that V-type Boomers, despite their nearly-human appearance and A.I. on nearly the same level as the human brain, are still nothing but machines built by our hands, the machines made to fight and to kill. And thus, their "state of mind" and "combat training" they give so much attention to are far less important comparing to the extent to which their abilities are developed. The basic combat tactics is among the first things we load into their brains, the main purpose of all this "combat training" is to reveal how well they took it. And in regard of their "state of mind"… As I said, all V-type Boomers were made to fight and to kill, and that's what they'll do when to comes down to it. And BU-01V… Lucy is but a prototype, and as all the prototypes, it has its flaws: BU-01V's Vectors reach for only half a distance BU-07V's do. The moment BU-07V starts fighting seriously, BU-01V will be no more."

"But if it is so hopeless, why did you approve using BU-01V to find and destroy BU-07V?" The man asked.

"Because it will serve to make your job easier in the end," was Chairman Quincy's reply, "Kate, please explain it to him."

"Very well," Kate, who until now seemed to pay no attention to the conversion, turned to the man and said, "We understand that even your people will have difficulties searching for BU-07V all over the MegaTokyo. However, with BU-01V under our control, at least for the time being, we will be able to track it through OMS; the moment BU-01V will locate BU-07V, I will inform you about its location, and you, in turn, will transfer this information to your people. Just make sure you have them on stand-by; we do not know how long will BU-01V last against BU-07V."

"Okay, I got it."

"And one more thing," Chairman Quincy added before the man left, "We can't entirely dismiss there chance that there will still be two V-type Boomers at the scene when your people arrive there. Should this be the case… I have no farther need for BU-01V when I already have far more advanced models under development. You will make certain there aren't ANY V-type Boomers running amuck in MegaTokyo, have I made myself clear?"

"Perfectly, Mr. Chairman," The man replied, bowing to Chairman Quincy before he left.

* * *

Meanwhile, as Director Kakuzawa, his son Yuu and Director Kakuzawa's other chief scientist, Doctor Kurama took the elevator that would take the down from level 100, the elder Kakuzawa cast a somewhat disapproving glance at his son, whose face was still graced with a self-satisfied smile.

"I hope you didn't forget where your loyalty lies," the elder Kakuzawa said finally, still looking at his son disapprovingly.

But the younger Kakuzawa's smile grew only wider as he spoke, ""Why, father, how could your worthless son forget to whom he owes his turbulent career in GENOM?! You wound me!"

Kurama, who stood somewhat aside from the two, did the only thing a reasonable man could do in this situation: he pretended that he didn't hear the brief exchange between the father and his son.

As one of Director Kakuzawa's chief scientists, Kurama knew too well that Director Kakuzawa only sought only to better his situation within the company regardless of what it would take or what harm it would do to the company, and his latest orders were a good example: Director Kakuzawa wasn't as stupid as not to realize the possible consequences of releasing a large number of combat boomers into the streets of MegaTokyo, but he believed that the blow one of GENOM's main products and all of GENOM's department related to production and sales of BU-55C would suffer in the result would only better his own situation by increasing the importance of Project V he was in charge of.

Kurama himself had a certain amount of disdain for GENOM internal policy, and tried to stay away as much as he could, and therefore, choose neither report some of Director Kakuzawa's doubtful activities he witnessed, nor to take part in them. But as unsubtle, sometimes to the point of overconfidence and open foolishness, as Director Kakuzawa often was about his doubtful activities, Kurama had no doubt that Chairman Quincy knew of them well enough, meaning that Director Kakuzawa wouldn't likely live longer then he was useful for Quincy and GENOM.

"_But then again, doesn't the same apply to all of us?"_ Kurama asked himself gloomily, _"Both humans… And boomers."_

* * *

"And the final matter regarding this incident…"

"One more, Kate?" Chairman Quincy asked, as he turned around in his chair to look at his unofficial right-hand woman.

"Yes, Mr. Chairman," Kate said, as she took out a remote console and turned on the screen on one of the Chairman Quincy's office's walls.

The screen displayed a black battlesuit standing against the background of MegaTokyo at night. Next scene: the look up to the battlesuit as it points one of its arms at the screen. "I'm sorry." The screen goes black.

"These are the last footages from BU-33-CX2 made just before its destruction that we managed to recover through OMS. As you can see, this is a G-1 GENOM Battlesuit, used exclusively by GENOM personal. I personally made sure that none of these battlesuits were illegally sold or made it to the black market."

"Did you manage to find out the pilot's identity?"

"Even though I don't have an undeniable proof, all the signs point at Mr. Kurama, who was in charge of BU-07V's development." A pause. "Should I terminate him?"

"In charge of BU-07's development, eh? Interesting… No, I may still have a use for him. But do warn him against making more stupid things, Kate. I'd hate having to kill him now, when there is still so much work to do on Project V."

* * *

"Mr. Kurama, I would like to have a word with you."

Caught off-guard, Kurama turned away from his car and saw a lavender-haired businesswoman he had seen earlier, Kate Madigan. He didn't hear her approaching him, and this only made him even more nervous: his cool could only go so far.

"Yes, Madigan-dono?"

"Mr. Kurama," Kate's voice was cold to the point of being completely unemotional as her icy light-blue eyes met Kurama's, "I am fully aware of your off-job activities last night, and needless to say, Chairman Quincy was not pleased to learn about them."

"With all respect, I do not know what you are talking about, Madigan-dono," though Kurama tried his best to keep his voice calm, the nervousness in it was plain to anybody with the amount of experience Kate had, and Kate didn't miss it.

"We both know what I am talking about too well, Mr. Kurama. Consider this your one and only warning: all the responsibilities for BU-07V were taken from you. You are not entitled to get involved in any operations concerning BU-07V any longer. If you try to do something like what you did last night again, you will be fired."

Kate didn't need to elaborate on the true implications on this threat; Kurama knew that he was involved in one of GENOM's high-secrecy projects, and fully realized that he would never be allowed to take the knowledge he had beyond GENOM.

Kate, on her part, studied Kurama's face for a few seconds before continuing, "You do have something to live for, don't you?" The question was rhetorical, and Kate continued before Kurama could answer it . "If it is so, I advise you to consider BU-07V a sacrifice, a failed project that has to be terminated so that others can live. Have I made myself clear?"

"Yes," was the only thing Kurama could say in reply, as he nodded slightly; back then he hadn't thought the day he would regret making that particular arrangement will ever come, but now he wondered if he had truly done the right thing.

* * *

It was already a late morning when Nana finally dared to come out of her hideout in one of abandoned buildings. Though the distant sounds of a combat going on ceased a while ago, Nana passed the remnants of the night without even a wink of sleep; although she felt drained by the latest events, she didn't dare to go to sleep when she knew that more combat boomers could come after her any minute, even though her hiding place seemed to be safe enough at the moment. But then again, her exhaustion was of a mental kind, and Nana knew that she could go without sleep for several days if she had to. Like all her other abilities, this one was tested and tested until it developed to what seemed to be its limit.

By the time Nana came out to the street where A.D. Police made their stand against boomers, the bodies and the most pieces of destroyed vehicles had already been taken away, but still the signs of damage on the street and some nearby buildings and numerous patches of blood made what had happened in here a few hours ago obvious even to someone as inexperienced as Nana. It was a bloody battle. Although increased access to more advanced weaponry allowed A.D. Police to fight on more or less equal terms with somewhat outdated BU-55C Combat Boomers even when the situation wasn't deemed to be serious enough to warrant the use of K-suits, ADP officers still paid high price for every boomer they brought down.

The exact details were of course lost to Nana, but she clearly understood one thing: the combat boomers who came after her were dead, and it was clear that some humans were killed as well. And even though she wasn't the one to perform the act, Nana knew that everything that happened last night was her fault, and it hurt her more then any flesh wound her pursuers could inflict upon her.

"_It looks like I did a bad thing after all,"_ Nana thought sadly, as she stood in the middle of the street, _"Perhaps, it would be better for everybody if I just returned back. Except that… They didn't try to take me back, did they? They tried to… to kill me! But why? Why would humans who created me want my death now? Is it just because I am not like others, because I don't want to kill? Am I so useless to you just because of it?"_

But suddenly she remembered the last message her Papa left to her, _"There is nothing more I can do for you. You must flee from here as soon as possible."_

He cared for her! He always did, as she could see even when things were hard. As far as Nana knew, he was the only person to do so. She just hoped that he wouldn't get in trouble because of it.

"_Foolish Papa,"_ Nana thought sadly, _"Doesn't he realize that he doesn't have to get in trouble because of me? After all, I am only a boomer…"_

But at the same time Nana knew that the blame was mostly on her, after all, she could choose not to proceed with Papa's instructions. But what was done was done, and Nana guessed that she just had to make the best out of it now. Papa never said anything about them seeing each other again, but perhaps, just perhaps, if she is a good girl, Papa will come after her someday.

"_Except that I don't really know how to be good,"_ Nana though, feeling desperation slowly seizing her, _"I thought that doing what Papa told me to would be a good thing, but it turned out to be very bad, and now people died because of me. So, what should I do now?"_

The last instructions her Papa left her told her to leave Japan and move to China, European Union, or USA, and try to mingle with humans without revealing her origin or abilities to anyone, but they turned out to be rather unhelpful: Nana simply didn't know of the places Papa was talking about! All she knew that she was currently in a place called "MegaTokyo", and this was as much as she knew about her surroundings.

Nana sighed. She wasn't getting anywhere by just standing there and thinking about it.

As yesterday, Nana quickly lost track of how long she was walking in no particular direction, but at least now, she didn't feel as though she was all but alone in this huge city. Despite it being the poorest and least populated part of MegaTokyo, during the daytime even its streets were filled with pedestrians, not to mention far more numerous cars and occasional bikes.

In a way, it was a good opportunity for Nana to try to learn something about this world, if only she wasn't hopelessly lost in all this chaos. But finally, Nana gathered her courage and decided to address one of many humans who were walking by her…

"Ano…" Some teenager with his ear-phones on just went on; from the look of things he didn't even hear Nana. "Excuse me…" A middle-aged man in cheap business suit just walked past her, without bothering to spare Nana even a glance. "I… Ow!" Some man in dark raincoat and shades never bothered to walk around Nana, instead he roughly shoved her off as he made his way, knocking her down to the asphalted street. "Don't stand in my way, stupid brat!"

"I'm sorry…" Nana mouthed, but the man was already gone, without bothering to give her another glance.

Nana let out a small sigh. She knew that trying to communicate with humans for the first time wouldn't be easy, but she didn't expect it to be like this.

After a few seconds of sitting on the asphalted street, Nana finally got up. She wasn't really hurt, at least not physically, but while she was used to the physical pain, being treated like this was completely new experience to Nana. She decided that she positively didn't like it.

As she shook off dust from her dress, Nana couldn't help letting out another sigh; the dress that was so beautiful a mere day ago now definitely wasn't in its best shape. Not only it was now rather dirty, but numerous tears spotted it too; having a building collapse under its wearer was certainly among the things the dress wasn't made for.

"_Why did it HAD to happen just after I dressed up for the first time?"_ Nana asked herself, though she felt as though she knew the answer: the humans who created her weren't going to let her go so easily, _"Well, at least my bruises are gone."_

It was true: the relatively light injuries she received from that fall were all but gone now, thanks to her increased metabolism rate. Nana knew that if she was human, she probably wouldn't get away with this fall so easily, so perhaps she should be glad she wasn't one. Then again, if she was human, she probably wouldn't be in this situation in the first place…

Humans… The ones she owned her life to… And also the ones who wanted to take it now…

For the next half a minute or so Nana just absently watched as they walked past her; at this moment, the barrier between her and them seemed almost as substantial as it was back when she was in the laboratory room with a bulletproof glass wall separating her from her peers. She just didn't know how to behave around them, and because of it, couldn't help feeling that she didn't really fit into their society, no matter how much she wanted to. She used to think if she would just be polite everything will be alright, but now it looked like it wasn't going to be the case. Perhaps, just perhaps, basing her opinion about the human race on just how her Papa treated her wasn't the wisest thing to do…

"Hey… Um… Are you alright?"

"Huh?"

Nana was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't notice as one particular human, a young man in his late teens came up to her, leaning to her so that their faces were on more or less the same level, at least not until he spoke.

"Um… I saw what has happened, sorry that it happened to you. Are you alright?"

Nana blinked a couple of times as she looked at him for a few seconds before replying; after the treatment she received earlier, not to mention everything she went through in the laboratory, she could barely believe that a human was speaking to her not only kindly, but also as though she was his equal.

"Yeah, I'm OK… Thank you."

For the next few seconds there was an uncomfortable silence between them, as Nana was desperately thinking of what to say, while the young man couldn't help looking at her clothes: torn and dirty dress and even more dirty shoes. The girl's only other possession seemed to be an equally dirty brown bag that was slung over her chest; and from the way the girl looked, nobody would be able to guess the contents of this bag. In short, the girl definitely looked like somebody from a very poor family, or perhaps even homeless.

"_Perhaps I could… No!" _The young man shook his head, as if this would help to banish unwanted thoughts.

He has always had a soft spot for young girls in distress ever since his little sister was killed in one of the first rogue boomer incidents years ago, but even so, he realized that he couldn't go around helping complete strangers, even by doing something as trivial as treating them to a lunch, when he and his cousin had to work so hard to make a living and pay for their studies. And speaking of work, that was where he was going to be late to if he didn't hurry up…

"I'm sorry, I gotta go," the young man said, breaking the silence.

Nana just followed him with her eyes as he ran off, with a happy smile upon her face. The young man would never know how much these few kind words meant for a young boomer girl.

Attracting more then a few glances, Nana happily skipped through the streets of MegaTokyo; the little details like bright-colored neon signs she could see here and there, or occasional beautiful car flashing by, once again commanded the young boomer girl's attention. Somebody showed care for her, and that was all she needed at the moment. Only much later she realized, that the young man could probably help her with telling about the places Papa was talking about, or explaining what these papers Papa called "money" were good for.

Nana stopped, as her previously happy mood was somewhat darkened by this realization. A quick glance upwards told Nana that it was already getting dark, and she made no real progress in proceeding with Papa's instructions. The time simply flew, and if she didn't want to spend another night without any sleep, she'd better start looking for a safe place to sleep. She just hoped that…

But Nana's hopes for at least a little peace were broken the very next moment, as she suddenly felt a familiar presence in her mind.

"_No way! They didn't…"_

'Oh, but they did! And I've always been looking forward to… killing you!'

With her eyes widened with horror, Nana could only blindly stare ahead, attracting glances passer-bys; she couldn't believe that she will have to fight Her, the only person beside Papa that was always there throughout her short life. From the emotions and far more rarely – brief thoughts they occasionally exchanged through their mental link, Nana knew that Lucy was nothing like her, and yet, they were still two of the kind. And now, on top of all they have already done, the humans wanted her… older sister, for the lack of better word, to kill her?

But then an image of a battered street came up in her mind, with blood and remnants of destroyed vehicles all over it. Even though they may not have known it, but these humans fought and died for her, and if it was not for them, she would probably be dead now. And then another image came up in her mind, that of a young man who saw her for the first time, yet seemed to genuinely care about her.

"_Um… I saw what has happened, sorry that it happened to you. Are you alright?"_

No, she wouldn't allow the last night's events to happen again; all these humans didn't deserve to be involved in her problems. She couldn't hide from Lucy, and therefore, there was no real point in trying to run away from her, but there was one thing she could do: she could face Lucy at the battlefield of her choosing, where it would be just between two of them.

* * *

Although it was still only early evening, there already was quite a crowd in Hot Legs night club; the particular female singer and her band that were going to be giving a performance right now were very popular, and the crowd literary roared when the loudspeakers announced: "And now, Priss and Replicants present: Kizudarake no WILD!"

_kudakechitta kanashimi no PURIZUMU_

_gin no shizuku ga hohoemi nurasu yo_

_RAITO no umi oyogu daremo ga_

_itami wo kakaete _

_Midnight Dreamin'_

_zawameku machi no NOIZU ga_

_kioku no DOA itazura ni tataite mo_

_jikan no SUPI-DO ni nado_

_maketeitakunai kara_

_Teardrops yuuki ni ima kaete_

_hashiridasu Born to be wild heart_

_ame ni utare hagareta MU-BI- POSUTA-_

_Hero ga yami ni juukou wo mukete'ru_

_samishisa ni nagasarenai_

_Soul ga hoshii yo _

_Midnight Flyin'_

_daremo ga ai wo sagashite_

_mienai kabe norikoete-yuku no sa_

_kizutsuku koto wo oboete_

_hontou no yasashisa shiru no sa_

_Never mind kizudarake no tsubasa de_

_tobitatsu yo Born to be wild heart_

_daremo ga ai wo sagashite_

_mienai kabe norikoete-yuku no sa_

_kizutsuku koto wo oboete_

_hontou no yasashisa shiru no sa_

_Never mind kizudarake no tsubasa de_

_tobitatsu yo Born to be wild heart_

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_Silver droplets from the shattered prism_

_Of sadness drench my smile._

_Those who swim in the sea of light_

_Embrace their pain._

_Midnight Dreamin'_

_Though the noise of the bustling city_

_May sneak up and knock on the door of my memory,_

_I don't want to be defeated_

_By the speed of time…_

_Therefore, I will now change these teardrops into courage_

_And run off, because I was born to be wild heart._

_On a peeled-off movie poster, pelted by rain,_

_The hero aims his gun at the darkness._

_I want a soul that won't be swept away_

_By loneliness. _

_Midnight Flyin'_

_Everyone overcomes unseen walls_

_In the search for love._

_Remember the times you were hurt_

_And you will come to know true tenderness._

_Never mind. I shall learn to fly with wings that are_

_Weak and scarred, because I was born to be wild heart._

_In the search for love,_

_Everyone overcomes unseen walls._

_Remember the times you were hurt_

_And you will come to know true tenderness._

_Never mind. I shall learn to fly with wings that are_

_Weak and scarred, because I was born to be wild heart._

Once the song ended, a blonde man somewhere in his late twenties who sat in the club's equivalent of VIP lounge, turned his eyes away from the beautiful female singer to look at his female companion, a beautiful strictly-dressed businesswoman with raven-black hair; normally somebody like her would have looked out-of-place in one of the seediest parts of MegaTokyo, but her cold demeanor somehow made her fit any place or situation.

"You see, I told you it was it was a pretty good place." The man said, smiling to his female companion, who, however, clearly didn't share his mirth.

"Well, as I told you earlier, I am not really into Rock 'n' Roll."

"Oh! I thought you would like this place anyway. Well, if you don't like it, I know of…"

"And I thought you had some business for me," the woman's cold remark cut the man off in the middle of the sentence, "I you do, get on with it. Otherwise, I am taking my leave."

"Alright, alright, you made your point," the smile was immediately gone from the man's face, replaced by a more serious expression, "I need you to find and kill someone."

The man slid two pictures across the table, and the woman looked at them, and with a barely noticeable surprise saw that the pictures depicted two teenage girls: the first looked to be around fifteen, the second – a little older, perhaps around eighteen or nineteen. With only a hint of surprise in her eyes, the woman raised her gaze to meet that of the man.

"I'm sure you don't expect us to perform assassination missions for GENOM," the woman said coldly, and after a short pause asked, "What are they?"

"Perceptive as ever," the man commented with a humorless grin, "You are right on target here, these two are not humans. These are GENOM's latest boomer models, with bodies similar to those of BU-33S: organic skin, artificial blood and muscles, and exoskeleton structure that is nearly similar to that of humans. Nothing short of in-depth medical diagnostics will reveal their true origin. But unlike BU-33S, these two are designed for combat: although they lack any built-in armor or conventional weapons, their strength, reflexes and senses are vastly superior to those of humans. And not only that, all their vital systems are protected by a powerful exoskeleton, making them very difficult to kill, and an increased metabolism rate allows them to quickly recover from any non-lethal injuries."

"Impressive, but even so, their physical capabilities would be nothing comparing to what BU-33C are capable of," the woman commented, and then asked, "I assume there is something else?"

"Oh, yes. Both of them possess so-called "Vector System", which is GENOM's most recent development. It allows them to manifest transparent and nearly-invisible "arms" called "Vectors": fast as light, guided with a thought, and capable of inflicting tremendous damage. The purpose for which it initially develops isn't that of a weapon, but it can be used as such with a deadly effectiveness."

The woman raised a single eyebrow as she looked at the man skeptically.

"You know, this sounds like it came from some old second-rate anime."

"But I assure you, it is true. Take a look at this."

The man passed a pocket PC with a particular video loaded into it to a woman, and for the next half a minute or so, she watched the mentioned video with a stony expression: it wasn't often that you could see heavily-armored BU-55C Combat Boomers cut into pieces by some invisible force as though they were made of paper. It was only another half a minute after the video ended when the woman spoke again.

"If this video is true…"

"It is."

"What have you done?"

"Not me. I am not in Research and Development Department, you know, nobody asks my opinion when decisions such as this are made. Anyway, these two went rogue and fled the research laboratory, and now GENOM needs you to destroy them."

"GENOM now directly comes to us to take care of their rogue boomers?"

If it wasn't for the gravity of the situation, the woman would refuse this job on spot; just so that Quincy didn't get any funny ideas about Knight Sabers becoming GENOM's unofficial branch company.

"Well, GENOM would usually leave this matter to A.D. Police, or perhaps even took care of it personally, but the truth is that neither A.D. Police nor even GENOM itself have any means of destroying them without causing major public damage. Perhaps, we don't have any means of destroying them at all. The payment is a hundred million yen, fifty million yen for each of them, you are to present their remains as the proof. The alternative is to allow two combat boomers of a new type, made to kill and without any warm feelings towards humans, to roam freely around MegaTokyo, undistinguished from human being and with an ability to kill without getting suspected."

The woman didn't reply, but from her expression the man could tell that she takes the job; for her, the alternative was not an alternative at all.

"What will make your job easier is that GENOM believes that they may be going to fight each other, apparently, they have no warm feelings towards each other either. GENOM is currently trying to discern their location, and once they do it, I will contact you and give you their position data. I hope you will be ready by then. And… This may help you." The man took his pocket PC back, and instead passed a CD to the woman. "This contains some addition information about these two and their abilities, it's not much, but this is all we can provide… Make sure you come back safely, Sylia."

With that being said, the man stood up and left the night club. The woman named Sylia waited for a few more minutes before following suit. On her way out of the night club, she took out her cell phone and dialed a certain number… And at the same moment, back in the night club, a beautiful female singer who was just about to start another song felt her left earring vibrating: it was Knight Sabers full alert.

* * *

As usual, they gathered in the hangar, where their hardsuits and Knight Sabers' various vehicles were held. The four women that made a mercenary group known as Knight Sabers already had their softsuits on, and their resident mechanic and pilot stood leaning upon Knight Saber Trailer's door; considering this mission's danger level, Sylia decided that potential extra support in form of motorslaves would be more important then secrecy this time.

"Alright, it's time for the final briefing," Sylia said, drawing her fellow Knight Sabers' attention to a large screen on one of the hangar's walls, which turned on at her command, showing faces of their two targets along with some very generalized data on them.

**Target #1: BU-01V "Lucy"**

**Distinguishing features: red hair and eyes, otherwise undistinguishable from human being short of in-depth medical diagnostics; physically appears to be around 20 years of age **

**Danger level: High**

**Threat range: 2 meters**

**Target #2: BU-07V "Nana"**

**Distinguishing features: pink hair and eyes, otherwise undistinguishable from human being short of in-depth medical diagnostics; physically appears to be around 15 years of age**

**Danger level: Very High**

**Threat range: 4 meters**

"Both targets are combat boomers of a new type, and both are extremely deadly in their respective threat ranges: they attack with transparent and nearly-invisible "arms", which are capable of cutting through nearly any matter with relative ease, including your hardsuits. They lack any built-in armor, but they are very difficult to disable or destroy, and they are capable of stopping or deflecting most conventional ammunition; use your laser cannons and avoid getting into their threat range. This particularly goes to you, Nene, and to you, Priss. Nene, the known data about the targets has been loaded into your hardsuit's tactical computer, while this is not enough to formulate any kind of tactics against them, you can try to consult your tactical computer for details like making sure you say out of targets' threat range. The overall battle plan is as follow: Linna and Piss, you are to take the first target down as soon as possible, while Nene and I will engage the second target, then you are to come on our aid if we are unable to take the second target down on our own. Needless to say, our tactics may have to change according to the situation, and I trust you will be ready for everything. And now… Knight Sabers, to battle!"

* * *

In one of the farthest parts of Tinsel City, far away from any centers of activity, a girl stood atop a skeleton of a building at the long-abandoned construction site. The light breeze stroking her short pink hair was an unfamiliar and rather pleasant feeling, but the girl didn't allow it distract her, as she focused her attention at the young woman who stood at a few meters away from her. The young woman had long bright red hair that flew away in the breeze, and she was dressed in dark blue jumpsuit, something a pilot or maybe a biker could wear.

"Oneesan…"

"Imouto…" there was a hint of mockery in the young woman's voice as she addressed her "little sister", "You know, back in that laboratory, forced to kill all those pathetic BU-55C over and over, I was really looking forward to this moment… The moment I finally meet you in person… The moment I finally get to fight someone who is almost my equal!"

A quick step brought the young woman into two meters range from the girl: it was the start.

Author's notes:

If you read this chapter through (and I do hope that at least some people will read it through, and perhaps even review it), you probably noticed some inconsistencies when it comes to timeline in this chapter. To clarify the things: the scene when Leon and his squad take down the last BU-55C takes place at night some time after the previous chapter, the scenes in GENOM Tower take place in the afternoon of the following day, with the scene between Kate and Kurama taking place in the late afternoon when Kurama leaves work. After that, the time goes back to the morning to briefly describe Nana's day; the scenes in Hot Legs night club and Lady663 building's hangar (Knight Sabers' base of operation, owned by Sylia) fit that timeline, roughly taking place between Nana and Lucy detecting each other and their meeting at the abandoned construction site in Tinsel City.

Also, yes, I know that the scene that briefly described Nana's day was very poorly written, but unfortunately, this is the best I was able to come up with. The scenes I write the best are action/adventure scenes, and unfortunately, writing the scenes about everyday life or romance/drama scenes is a very big challenge for me. I can only hope that I will improve my writing skills in this field sooner or later…

Oh, and I would also like to note, that Sylia's comment about Vectors doesn't reflect my view towards Elfen Lied (which I view as the very best anime I have ever seen) in general or Vectors in particular; but imagine a Near-Future Tech scientist's reaction when he or she hears about Vectors as they were described in Elfen Lied.

And finally, I would like to once again remind you, that I would very much appreciate it if at least some people will review this chapter of this story of mine. I enjoy writing this story of mine very much, but nevertheless, writing this chapter of it was very difficult when I received no feedback whatsoever for the previous chapter of it. Even if you don't like some things about this story of mine, don't be afraid to openly state it; even negative/critical reviews are better then none in my opinion.


	5. Showdown in Tinsel City, part 1

Author's notes:

Thanks for still being with me, Cylon One! I hope the newest chapter won't leave you disappointed, because it is time for…

**Showdown in Tinsel City, part 1**

One moment everything seemed calm. The next – the air between the two of them erupted with motion, as though a hurricane suddenly came into being in there.

Neither of the two has ever fought someone with abilities that matched their own, and while nearly perfect understanding of their abilities helped them in many ways, they were exploring a completely new field now, a field, where any mistake could lead to death.

For a moment, eight transparent arms intertwined in the air, locked in struggle, before the younger of the two girls was thrown backwards, flying some ten meters before she hit a steel girder. Despite the strength of the blow, however, Nana recovered from it in a second, and the next moment she used her Vectors to push off the concrete floor and jump high into air. And just in time, as it turned out to be, for as Nana cast a glance backwards, she saw the steel girder she was thrown against falling, cut down by a strike that was intended for her.

But her opponent wasn't through with her yet: almost too fast for an eye to follow her, Lucy mirrored Nana's maneuver, and the next moment she was in the air as well, with but a meter between her and her opponent. Nana only had enough time to register her opponent's sudden movement when a nearly-invisible fist slammed into her stomach. The blow was strong enough to throw her far from their improvised battlefield, if only two more Vectors didn't catch her the last moment, holding her in the air for a second before slamming her hard against concrete floor, leaving a visible dent in it.

Though she was too far from the floor to support herself in the air with her Vectors, Lucy simply used them to push herself off one of the steel girders she was passing, thus reversing her jump and landing on her feet some three meters away from Nana, a distance she deemed to be safe. She could have easily finished their battle once and for all when she caught Nana off-guard in the air, but saw little reason to do so: with her mission accomplished, she will have to return back to the laboratory, and she wasn't particularly eager to do that. So far, Nana somewhat disappointed her, as she turned out to be even weaker then Lucy expected, but even so, Lucy had her reasons for prolonging Nana's last minutes of life. Not to mention that even as weak as Nana appeared to be, she could still potentially present more of a challenge then all those slow and stupid BU-55C Combat Boomers Lucy was accustomed to fighting.

"_Hm, perhaps I should try to… "Motivate" her a little?"_

Seeing that Nana has already recovered from the blows she took and was beginning to get to her feet, Lucy made a couple of quick steps forward and swiftly placed her Vector upon the younger girl's throat before she fully recovered. Though doing so in turn exposed her to the younger girl's Vectors, Lucy quickly ensured her safety by placing two more Vectors against Nana's chest and stomach: the moment Nana will attempt to draw her own Vectors, Lucy will push her backwards out of her reach. Or perhaps she will just crush the younger girl's throat before her Vectors will be able to reach her; Lucy hasn't decided it yet.

"So, what now, Imouto?" Lucy asked teasingly, tightening her grip on Nana's throat a little: not enough to crush it or prevent her from talking, but enough to cause her some pain.

"Why… Why are you doing this?" Nana asked weakly, rising her pain-filled eyes to meet Lucy's.

But whatever reaction she was hoping to evoke, it certainly was a short bitter laugh that came out of Lucy's mouth.

"Why? You have some nerve to even ask that? You, who had everything I didn't have? You, who went as far as telling me how nice your "Papa" was to you more then once?"

Lucy was fully aware of the fact that they were both held in the same conditions: their abilities seemed to develop only according to the necessity, and because of it, both of them were constantly subjected to endless "tests" to "help" them in development of their abilities. Yet there was one major difference between the conditions they were held in: while Lucy was always treated as but an inanimate object, a weapon made by human hands, Nana always had that man to support her when the things were the hardest, that "Kurama". A minimal show of concern, a single kind word… It all seemed so little comparing to all the pain and suffering both of them were subjected to on a daily basis, yet it would mean a world to Lucy. But of course, she would never get even this minimal show of concern: the humans responsible for her "development" have always treated her as but a killing machine, which she was painfully aware she was. It has always been difficult for her to be painfully aware of many things she just wasn't made for, but when Nana came into being, she unintentionally made it a hundred times harder for the oldest V-type Boomer. And now, to top it all…

"And now, to top it all, you dared to escape in my stead! It was I who fought the guards, but you who gained freedom! I didn't need an order to hunt you down, all I need was an excuse!"

Lucy tightened her grip on Nana's throat just a little, not enough to kill her just yet, she hoped.

"But I… I just wanted to live in peace… Why can't everyone let me do that? Is it so wrong for me to live in this world?"

"Oh, but of course it is! Did you think you would be allowed to live a "happy life" while others would have to endure pain and suffering? You did nothing to deserve the kind of life you want to live, you can't even fight to defend it. I guess it means that I will just kill you now."

Another bitter laugh escaped from Lucy's mouth; in a way, this little talk was amusing, but it was quickly starting to bore her, and Nana clearly didn't have a will to even try defending herself.

"_I guess this is it,"_ Lucy thought with just a hint of regret, as tightened her Vector to crush Nana's throat and kill the younger girl on spot.

Or at least she tired to do that, for as Lucy tired to tighten her grip, she was surprised to find that the "fingers" of her Vectors wouldn't move: it was almost as though the younger girl's throat suddenly became as strong as steel. Or, given the nature of her weapon, it rather became as strong as…

A realization of what Nana must have done suddenly struck Lucy: she must have let her Vector pass through her own body, thus intercepting Lucy's own Vector, too subtly for the older girl to even feel it until she tried to tighten her grip.

Lucy had no doubt that she could overpower the younger girl with a relative ease, but the momentary delay Nana's unexpected move has produced had its intended result: with nothing holding her, Nana quickly jumped backwards, putting a couple more meters between Lucy and herself.

But Lucy wasn't too concerned about it; by now she had no doubts in her ability to defeat the younger girl anytime she wanted. And when you looked at it this way, the fact that the younger girl was going to put a bit more of a fight wouldn't be such an unwelcome thing, after all.

"So, you are going to give me at least a minimal challenge?" Lucy asked, grinning broadly even as she calmly walked towards the younger girl, and then added sarcastically, "Wow, I'm impressed! I honestly didn't expect this much from you!"

"A challenge?" Lucy could help noticing that there was something wrong about Nana's voice as she spoke: it seemed to be all but completely lifeless.

"_Has she already given up?"_ Lucy thought, but Nana's next words caught her completely by surprise.

"If I was fighting seriously, you would have already been a dozen times dead."

Lucy would have normally assumed that the younger girl was just bluffing, but there was something about her voice and posture she didn't like. Well, it was long pass time for her to finish the younger girl off for good: she kept this beating going for long enough.

Now once again within a striking range from Nana, Lucy didn't hesitate to let all her four Vectors out with intention of tearing her opponent apart; this way, Nana would suffer for several more minutes before she finally dies. But before Lucy's Vectors reached their target, a single Vector found its mark upon Lucy's throat, far quicker then Lucy expected, lifting her into air and taking her backwards. And the next moment, Lucy's own Vectors stopped just an inch short of Nana's face, clawing at the empty air for a few seconds even as Nana's own Vector held Lucy in the air before the realization suddenly struck Lucy.

"Your Vectors… Have longer reach then mine?"

The very thought that the Number 7 could be better then her in anything, would have normally been too alien for Lucy to even consider it, but now she was facing an undeniable proof of it.

"Don't worry, I will not kill you," no longer deprived of any emotions, Nana's voice now appeared to be calm, but with a hint of steel about it, "However, it looks like I will have to teach you a lesson…"

Without further warnings, Nana's Vector, which was well over three meters long, Lucy noted, suddenly smashed Lucy against concrete floor and pressed her to it. Though it was painful enough by itself, it was just a beginning, and the next moment three more Vectors appeared to join the first, increasing the pressure. Lucy had to bite her lips to avoid crying out in pain, as Nana's Vectors literally crushed the concrete floor with Lucy's body and then let her fall to the lower level of the building.

On her part, Nana was more then a little shaken by what has just happened: for a brief second, she could feel her control over her own actions almost slipping, giving in to the basic instincts she was programmed with. With Lucy's intentions to cause her as much pain as possible before killing her plain to see, the only thing that stopped Nana from killing or incapacitating her opponent on spot the moment her mental barriers against doing so collapsed was the realization that perhaps the older girl indeed had good reasons to hate her so.

Back when both of them were in the laboratory, Nana was happy to have someone with whom she could share her happy moments, at least to a degree their empathic link allowed her to do it, but on her part, she also tried to cheer the old girl up as much as their very limited empathic link allowed her to, as she knew that things were even harder for Lucy then they were for her: after all, she had Papa to help her cope with pain and other hardships, while Lucy had no one. And it was only now Nana realized that all her attempts to cheer Lucy up had a completely opposite effect, and that she unintentionally only made things harder for the older girl. And now Nana could help feeling guilty about it, ironically even as she had to fight the older girl.

Though for the time being she forced her opponent away, Nana realized that running away was not an option: she had to show that she was Lucy's superior in every way if she was to convince the older girl not to attempt to seek her out ever again. But should she fail to convince her of that… Nana honestly wasn't sure what to do: she didn't want to kill or even seriously injure the older girl she couldn't help but view as her older sister, and in fact, she wasn't sure she really had a will to do that now, when her outburst has passed. She could only hope that Lucy wouldn't realize that…

But speaking of Lucy, Nana suddenly realized that he opponent was surely taking her time returning back to combat zone. Nana realized that what she did to her must have hurt, more then anything Lucy has done to her so far, in fact, but considering that their physical qualities were similar, it should have cause but a slight injury to Lucy.

Somewhat concerned over her opponent, and not sure what to think, Nana started walking towards the hole in the concrete floor she made with Lucy's body, but suddenly stopped: she was getting a very strong feeling of deja vu. And the next moment the floor beneath Nana seemed to explode.

Even though Nana half-expected something like that since the moment she recalled her last night's battle against BU-55C, it was still almost a miracle that Nana managed to push herself off the quickly collapsing floor, narrowly avoiding two transparent arms that were reaching for her through it. And even so, Nana was rather confused by the turn the situation suddenly took, which would likely prove to be her undoing if only Lucy didn't find it equally difficult to orientate in the chaos the reigned around them for a few seconds: the past time Nana and then Lucy were forcedly crushed against the concrete floor weakened the floor of the half-built building's upper level, which wasn't all that stable to begin with, and Lucy's newest blow against it turned out to be the last straw. The floor of the half-built building's upper level was now for the most part collapsing, and both Nana and particularly Lucy, who has been holding to it with her Vectors from bellow, were now forced to seek a different foothold.

They both found it in surprisingly similar way, the steel girders that were rising somewhat higher then the floor of the half-built building's upper level were still for the most part intact, except for the one Lucy cut down with her Vector earlier, and both girls found that the most logical thing to do was to support themselves in the air by holding to these steel girders with their Vectors.

For the next half a minute or so, the two of them were just looking at each other, both hesitant to make the next move. Although Nana knew that she had a clear advantage over the older girl, pressing this advantage by attacking first somehow didn't seem right to her. No, she would rather let her opponent make the first move; she didn't like the idea of responding to violence with violence in the least, but it was nevertheless better then striking at the weaker opponent first.

Lucy's situation, on the other hand, was completely opposite to Nana's: while she wished nothing more to finish her opponent off for good, she realized that any direct attack against her would be useless, particularly in this situation. Nana's Vectors had a reach about twice as long as hers, and if Lucy was to attack her directly, this would force her to pass some two meters within reach of Nana's Vectors, almost fully at her mercy and without ability to attack her back. And as if this was not enough, in the current situation Nana's longer reach gave her far greater maneuverability, essentially dropping Lucy's chances of defeating her to zero. No, if she was to emerge victorious from this fight, she would have to force Nana back to the solid ground first, and Lucy thought she found a possible way to do that.

Nana, on her part, couldn't think of what she would do in Lucy's situation, as thus she was somewhat surprised when she saw the upper halves of the nearest to Lucy steel girders separating themselves from the rest of the steel girders and positioning themselves horizontally like gigantic makeshift spears. The realization of what Lucy was going to do came to Nana too late, only by the time when two steel girders suddenly shot themselves at Nana with blinding speed, leaving her with only one way to avoid the painful impact: to instantly release the hold on the steel girder she was holding to and quickly drop to the second storey of the building. Which, unbeknown to Nana, was exactly what Lucy expected her to do…

"_Got you!"_

Pushing herself off the girder she was holding to with all her strength, Lucy dived at Nana with her Vectors extended to their full length to tear the younger girl apart the moment she is within their range. Still somewhat off-guard, Nana merely raised her head to look at her swiftly approaching opponent.

For a long moment their gazes remained locked, before the older girl was violently thrown backwards and painfully landed some distance away from Nana.

"_Damn it, not fast enough!"_

Wiping off a trinket of blood running from the side of her mouth, Lucy slowly got back to her feet, and hatefully looked at Nana who approached to stand a little over three meters away from her.

"This is not over yet!"

"No, it is," Nana's voice was calm as she said it, and before she further elaborated on the subject, Lucy suddenly felt as though her left leg got struck in a grip vice.

Looking down confirmed Lucy's worst suspicions: her left leg was now firmly griped in one of Nana's Vector, which she sent just over the ground, thus making sure that Lucy wouldn't notice what she was doing until it would be too late for her.

"You can't make even a step from here without my say-so," though Lucy was fully ware of the implications of what Nana had done, Nana nevertheless decided to elaborate on the subject to make sure Lucy understood the situation she was in, "If you try to… Your leg will remain behind. I am sorry to do this, but you left me no other choice."

"You bitch!" Though she continued to look at Nana hateful, Lucy couldn't help realizing that this insult was as much as she could do at the moment; she was completely at her opponent's mercy right now.

"I am going to make you an offer: if you promise to leave me be, I will let you go. But if you make this promise and then break it… I hope you realize that you are no match for me. And the next time I won't be that gentle with you."

Lucy didn't reply at first, instead she just clenched her teeth as she was thinking about what Nana has just said. The younger girl really put her in no-win situation, after all, she couldn't just forget about her instructions and let the younger girl go… Or could she? Where did the blind following her instructions ended and her personal vendetta began? Now when she thought of it, Lucy was not so certain…

But as she was thinking of it, a sudden roar of jet thrusters brought Lucy out of her thoughts, and as she returned to reality, she immediately noticed Nana casting a glance sidewards. And the moment Lucy's leg was out of Nana's view, her Vector retracted: guided with a thought, Vectors couldn't affect the things their owners didn't perceive.

"_That is my chance!"_

There was still a little over three meters between Lucy and her opponent, but now with Nana distracted, Lucy had some hope that she will be able to get into the striking range from Nana before the younger girl will realize that she turned her head away from the greater danger. But the next moment two things happened at once: Nana jumped sidewards, narrowly dodging two laser shots that hit the spot she occupied a moment ago, and Lucy felt a sudden pain at the back of her head as another laser shot grazed the back of her skull. Luckily, because she moved in the last moment it was but at surface wound, otherwise…

"Aw, Blue Saber, another inch and you would have left me without any work today!"

Turning to face the new enemies, Lucy saw two humanoid figures: apparently, human women dressed in skin-tight powered armor. The first one, whose powered armor was painted in green, was standing a little closer to Lucy, in a stance some would recognize as that of a martial artist, though this particular stance didn't belong to any known martial arts style. The second one, whose powered armor was painted in blue, stood to the side and a couple of steps behind her companion, with her right arm with a powered gauntlet upon it pointed at Lucy.

"_She is the one who shot me,"_ Lucy realized, even as she heard another voice.

"This is a serious mission, Green Saber, and I would appreciate it if you approach it as such."

By now mostly recovered from her initial surprise, Nana was now looking at the speaker: like the first two, this woman was dressed in skin-tight powered armor, this one was light grey, almost white in color. She calmly kept her arms, each with powered gauntlet upon it, at her side, but Nana already witnessed the woman's reflexes and knew that more laser shots could be fired upon her at any moment.

To the side and a little behind the grey-armored woman stood the one who appeared to be the youngest of the four, or at the very least she was noticeably smaller then the other three. Her powered armor was the only one with two major colors: the top was painted blue, and the legs – pink. She was trying to imitate green-armored woman's combat stance, but didn't look too convincing at doing that.

For a few seconds both sides were studying each other, with no more shots fired at Nana and Lucy, until the grey-armored woman finally spoke again, "Knight Sabers, to battle!"


	6. Showdown in Tinsel City, part 2

Author's notes:

No reviews for me once again, judging from the look of things… (sigh) …Or well, I'll just keep writing this story of mine anyway! (forced smile) And now it is time for…

**Showdown in Tinsel City, part 2**

This time, with Lucy fully aware of the danger, her opponent's shot failed to find its mark. Priss, the Blue Saber was an excellent marksman, but Lucy's superhuman reflexes were also at the height: she couldn't tell that dodging the Blue Saber's quick and very precise shots was exactly easy, but she was able to do it so far.

Out of the corner of her eye, Lucy noticed that the Green Saber also sprang into action, running in half-circle around Lucy while quickly closing the distance between them. From the look of things, she was going to engage Lucy in melee combat.

Lucy grinned: the Green Saber will be the first to die, then. Though her head still hurt and was bleeding profoundly, the initial pain shock from the shot she took has passed, and she was fully able to use her Vectors again, as the Green Saber will soon learn.

Dodging several more shots from the Blue Saber, Lucy waited for the Green Saber to come into the reach of her Vectors, and as soon as it happened she immediately released all her Vectors with intention of killing her opponent on spot. What happened next, however, took Lucy by surprise, as in the last moment the Green Saber made a summersault backwards and then quickly jumped out of the reach of Lucy's Vectors. It was almost as though this was what she was planning to do from the very start…

"_A feint!"_ Lucy realized immediately, as she tried to quickly jump away, fully aware that the Blue Saber ready to take advantage of her momentary surprise.

Not quickly enough, as it turned out to be, for the next moment Lucy felt a stab of pain as the Blue Saber's next shot found its mark on her left side, leaving another non-critical, but profoundly bleeding wound.

Feeling a sudden chill, Lucy looked at her enemies who paused before pressing the attack. Though none of her injuries were critical, the beating she took earlier from Nana together with the more recent laser shots were beginning to take their toll on her, and as the blood flowed profoundly from her wounds, Lucy could feel her strength slowly draining along with it. And with a sudden dread Lucy realized, that she probably wasn't going to walk out of here alive…

Unlike Lucy, Nana had somewhat easier time fighting these new enemies: though the White Saber kept firing at her with both her laser cannons, her aim wasn't as infallible as that of the Blue Saber, which made the job of dodging the White Saber's shots much easier for Nana. And the Pink Saber's shots were even less accurate, going wide off their target as often as not.

But even so, Nana knew that she couldn't let this go on forever: sooner or later she would make a mistake, and taking the White Saber skill and reflexes into account, it would likely take but a single mistake on Nana's part for the situation to change dramatically.

Nana fully realized that she will have to go into offense, and soon, if she wanted to get out of this mess alive, which she REALLY wanted. But it was easier to say then do: with skill and reflexes the White Saber displayed, Nana knew that getting into a striking distance from her without getting hit by one if not more of her laser shots wouldn't be easy. And not only that; Nana was rather unsure of how to go about "disabling" her new opponents when, or if, she gets into a striking distance from them. She could somehow feel that unlike all the previous enemies she faced, these new opponents were human underneath their metallic armor, and she wanted to harm them even less then her fellow boomers; after all, she was painfully aware that both she and the combat boomers she faced were made with a sole purpose of fighting and killing, while these humans, on the other hand, must have had much nicer things to live for. Why humans would want to fight at all, when there were combat boomers made exactly for that, Nana had no idea.

But the next moment Nana's thoughts were very rudely interrupted, as a laser beam went through her right side, narrowly missing any vital parts of her as it cut through her body. Though Nana didn't allow herself to be fully distracted from the combat, she nevertheless couldn't help losing her focus just a little as she considered what to do, and that was as much of a distraction as her opponent needed.

"_Perhaps I shouldn't have worried about how to disable them before I even got a chance to do that?"_

Tough sudden pain prevented Nana from using her Vectors for a while, she nevertheless managed to jump backwards and to the side, avoid two more shots from the White Saber, and another one from the Pink Saber.

But the White Saber was nowhere near being through with Nana yet, and the next moment what looked almost like two streams of light shot downwards from two short wings that were coming from behind the White Saber's shoulders, as the White Saber's jet thrusters sent the White Saber into graceful flight. Under different circumstances, Nana would probably find this sight quite beautiful, but the White Saber was quick to show her just how deadly this beauty was, as the very next moment she began to literary rain numerous laser shots down upon Nana.

But by that time Nana has already coped with the pain from the shot she took, and was fully able to use her Vectors once more. Wasting no time, she pushed herself off the floor with her Vectors and made a long and nearly instantaneous jump to the side, which took her far from the White Saber's zone of fire.

This maneuver somewhat took Sylia, the White Saber by surprise, as she hasn't seen Nana doing something like that yet, and she couldn't help cursing slightly under her breath; at the speed she was flying right now it would be very difficult to change the trajectory of her flight in mid air, and it meant that she will have to land before going after BU-07V again, which in turn meant that BU-07V will have more time to recover and perhaps even counterattack.

But what happened the next moment took all three combatants by surprise, as Nana's jump inadvertently took her into close proximately to the Pink Saber, Nene. Though initially taken completely by surprise, Nene recovered from it rather quickly, and in a few seconds she raised her arm and shot at Nana with her laser cannon, forcing her to quickly make a short half-jump half-step to the side in order to dodge her shot. Nene may have been the worst shooter among the Knight Sabers, but it didn't mean that she was completely hopeless, and the close proximately to the target gave her a fair chance of hitting it.

Nene herself was neither surprised nor particularly disappointed when her first shot missed, after all, she was kind of used to missing more often then not, and determined to prove her worth in combat this time, Nene was preparing to shot again when she heard Sylia shouting to her.

"Nene, the distance!"

"Na-nani?"

A quick consultation with her tactical computer shed light on what Sylia was talking about as well as explained the fear in her usually calm voice: there was but a meter and a half between Nana and Nene, and Nene's tactical computer promptly told her that her survival possibility was zero percent. In fact, according to her tactical computer's calculations, she should have already been dead by now…

"IIE!"

With all her determined to prove her worth in combat this time gone in a blink, Nene tried to hurriedly back away from her opponent, hoping against hope that her tactical computer's calculations were somehow wrong and she will be able to get out of her deadly opponent's threat range before something bad will happen to her.

But as per Murphy's Law, this wasn't destined to be the case, and as panicky Nene tried to hurriedly back away from her opponent, she unsurprisingly stumbled and fell hard on her rear, able only to stare in horror at her opponent, who was probably going to end her life any moment.

But on her part, Nana was more then a little bewildered by her opponent's antics: at the moment, she looked nothing like a merciless killer sent to kill her, but more like a girl caught in the situation she would have very much liked to avoid. In this regard, the Pink Saber kind of reminded Nana of… Herself.

Needless to say, Sylia was more then a little surprised to see Nana just standing in front of Nene and looking at her; she has already began mourning Nene and cursing herself for taking the youngest Knight Saber to a mission as dangerous as this the moment she saw her stumble and fall. In their short but intense battle, Nana clearly demonstrated abilities that went well beyond that of any human, but then…

"_Why doesn't she attack?"_ Sylia asked herself.

But needless to say, Nene was not in position to ask herself such questions, and as the horrified girl was looking up at her deadly opponent standing just a little over meter away from her, she finally did the only thing left for her to do in this situation: she screamed "KYAAA!" on top of her lungs and opened the wild auto-fire she was infamous for.

Not a very good shooter at the best of times, right now Nene didn't make even a minimal effort at aiming, meaning that most of her shots went wide off their target. But the sheer amount of shots fired at completely off-guard Nana over a short period of time ensured that quite a few of them found their mark nevertheless, delivering a number of light injuries to Nana. This time, it was Nana's turn to back away from her opponent; though none of the injuries she received so far were critical, the sheer number of them weakened her, and the pain made her temporary unable to use her Vectors once again.

Luckily for Nana, Nene's fire lasted for but a few seconds, and the next moment her overheated laser cannon suddenly went silent: Sylia has never designed it for the kind of berserker shooting Nene performed from time to time. But of course, Nana was fully aware that even now when the Pink Saber stopped shooting for the time being, she still had another opponent to worry about, and her physical condition left a lot to be desired, to put it mildly…

* * *

The battle between the Knight Sabers and their opponents was quickly drawing to an end, but unbeknown to all the combatants, somebody has taken a keen interest in it…

Unnoticed by the combatants, and invisible on Mackie's radars due to a powerful ECM system it possessed, an unremarkable truck painted in plain grey color slowly approached the improvised battlefield and stopped at some distance from it. It all happened a few minutes ago, and now the truck's single crewman observed the unfolding battle and the turn it was quickly taking with displeasure: his superior wasn't going to like it.

But he had little choice in this matter, and the man quickly contacted his superior via the comlink.

"I'm sorry to report that Lucy and Nana are unable to handle the Knight Sabers, just as you predicted."

But against the man's worst fears, his superior's response was very calm, which was understandable considering that this was the most likely turn he expected this three-sided battle to take, and he was in fact preparing against it.

'Very well… Do it.'

The man didn't waste more time, and on his command the truck's rear door opened and one by one four human-sized shapes stepped out of it. They were painted dark red and more or less humanoid in appearance, but their size was the one thing that was deceiving, for the moment boomers stepped out of the truck into the open space they seem to unfold, becoming a little over half again as big as they used to be.

These boomers were one of GENOM's less known boomer models, BU-62C Combat Boomers, specifically developed to be sold to communists and indeed exclusively sold to them. Their current owner obtained them as a side gain during one of his schemes, but although they were more notably more powerful then the common BU-55C, originally he never intended to use them: the enemies he had weren't going to be brought down by the measures that ordinary, and it was the fact these boomers' owner has learned the hard way. But today, these boomers will serve their purpose…

* * *

Seeing injured Nana backing away from Nene removed all of Sylia's doubts regarding what to do with her: it was an opportunity she couldn't afford to miss. She will save her friend's life, and if it means that she won't be able to ask questions later, so be it.

Sylia instantly broke into the run, quickly reducing the distance between Nana and herself, and the moment she was in range at which she could hope to his boomer girl she opened fire. But Nana was fully aware of the danger she left behind and the moment she heard metallic footsteps she jumped sidewards, throwing herself to the floor and rolling over, thus getting from under Sylia's fire. Though her injuries were numerous, she was not finished yet…

Lucy, on the other hand, was in notably worse condition: by now, she had another more or less serious injury, this time on her right side – a courtesy of Priss, and a more light wound on her left shoulder – a courtesy of Linna, the Green Saber. She was bleeding, she was in pain, and her enemies always remained just outside the reach of her Vectors, almost as though they were mocking her. More then anything she wished to take at least one of them to the grave with her, but now, it didn't look like it was going to happen…

But even as her enemies were preparing to move in and finish her off, the was a sudden roar of engines, and in a few seconds two large dark red vaguely humanoid figures appeared on the building's upper intact storey – BU-62C Combat Boomers.

Though neither Linna nor Priss has faced this type of boomers ever before, they both immediately recognized the danger they posed: in addition to standard torso-mounted heat cannon and mouth-mounted laser cannon BU-55C had, these boomers also a heavy caliber anti-tank railguns built into their right arms, and an anti-personal heavy assault rifles built into his left arms.

The boomers' hostile intentions were plain to see even before they opened fire at Linna and Priss. But two Knight Sabers didn't allow themselves to be taken by surprise, and the next moment both of the jumped away, dodging the railgun shells the boomers shot at them. And while several shots from the boomers' rapid-firing assault rifles managed to find their marks on Priss' armor, whose hardsuit was the heaviest and therefore the slowest of the two of them, they were nowhere near being powerful enough to penetrate her heavy armor.

Priss calmly stood her ground as the boomer, who was slower still, turned to face her, shooting more bullets from his assault rifle at her, which however merely grazed her heavy armor. When the boomer fully turned, Priss readily returned the favor by placing two shots from her laser cannon into the boomer's torso, which however had equally little effect on a heavily armor boomer.

"_Huh, our lasers are not powerful enough to penetrate that armor? Well, how about this?"_

Quickly switching her laser cannon from normal to power shot mode, Priss fired another laser shot at the boomer, neatly taking his entire right arm off as she hit the boomer where his right arm connected with his shoulder. Priss couldn't help smirking behind her helmet: without his main weapon, the boomer was no longer a threat to consider, meaning that she was free to take care of other business…

Unlike Priss, who calmly took all the shots she knew wouldn't cause any significant damage to her hardsuit, Linna took personal pride in dodging every shot the boomer fired upon her as she sprinted towards him. Not fully aware of what kind of opponent he was facing, the boomer viewed the closing of distance between his opponent and himself as advantageous, and as soon as Linna was close, the boomer slid his torso plates aside, revealing the white slots of his heat cannon, which he intended to use to fry his opponent in her armor.

This was not destined to be the case, however, for the next moment Linna jumped into air, and after making a summersault landed on the boomer's shoulders, pressing the palms of both her hands to the sides of the boomer's head. The next moment there was a loud sound of explosion, and the boomer's head seemed to simply disappear without a trace, as Linna fired her knuckle bomber, blowing the boomer's head off.

With the boomer clearly disabled, Linna jumped off him, landing gracefully to her feet even as the boomer's body fell to the ground, where it remained lying still. Afterwards, Linna proceeded to glance around, as she tried to appraise the changed combat situation; she had no doubt about Priss' ability to deal with both her boomer and apparently heavily damaged BU-01V, but she was aware that her other friends could be under attack of these new boomers as well, and at least one of them would likely be in dire need for help…

Sylia was about to press her assault on Nana, when a new boomer appeared, blocking her path.

"Damn it!" Sylia couldn't help cursing out loud

Though Sylia was known for usually keeping her cool under almost any circumstances, she didn't like the turn this battle took over the sudden, particularly the fact that this new boomer cut her off from Nene, and Sylia knew that her youngest teammate was probably in desperate need of help. Sylia could hear the sound of more shooting behind her, and she quickly realized that Linna and Priss were attacked by these new boomers as well.

"_Is it a trap?"_ Sylia wondered, _"No, Fargo would have never done that to me, so I have to assume there are forces in play he was not aware of…"_

Sylia's thoughts were interrupted as the new boomer opened fire at her, but she was ready for it.

'Mackie, back Nene up with a motorslave!' Sylia shouted through her comlink as she charged at the boomer.

Though Sylia usually was nowhere near as reckless as Priss in combat, this time she knew that time was of the essence, and with her hardsuit even more heavily armored then Priss', Sylia bothered to dodge only the heavy railgun shell as she quickly covered the distance between herself and the new boomer even as the twin laser-edged swords slid from her powered gauntlets. The next moment – and Sylia made two lightning-quick slashes, neatly severing both of the boomer's arms off, depriving him of his main weapons.

But not all of them.

Sylia realized that she acted too hastily only as the boomer opened his mouth and shot his powerful laser cannon at her, which Sylia had no way of dodging at this range. And despite Sylia's heavy armor, the shot left an almost through hole in her torso plate, causing her to stagger backwards, almost falling.

But despite the pain she felt, Sylia still managed to turn a near fall into somewhat controllable summersault, tumbling away from the armless boomer even as he slid his torso plates aside to fire his heat cannon at her, which would have had a deadly effect on Sylia if only she hasn't already got out of its range.

Now when she was out of danger for a moment, Sylia could take time to use a little "trick" she was able to perform to disable the pain receptors in her brain, and she immediately felt the pain from the shot she took becoming nothing more then unpleasant memory, at least for the time being. But even so, things weren't developing up to Sylia's liking: the armless boomer didn't pose a serious threat to her now, but it will likely take her some to get past it to Nene. Sylia could only hope that the youngest Knight Saber will last this long…

* * *

'Mackie, back Nene up with a motorslave!'

But Mackie, who was also observing the unfolding battle on his radars didn't need this instruction: he has already been acting since the moment four new boomers appeared on the battlefield out of nowhere.

Upon Mackie's command, Knight Saber Trailer's side door opened, and then a hydraulic boom arm took a large pink-colored bike out of Knight Saber Trailer's cargo bay and placed it on the street. And in a few seconds the bike quickly changed its shape upon Mackie's mental command, transforming into the large humanoid robot, easily twice as tall as any human.

The next moment, the motorslave's back-mounted thrusters came to live, as the vehicle rushed upwards towards the building's upper intact storey. Lacking a hardsuit of his own, necessary to truly pilot a motorslave, the best thing Mackie was able to do is to mentally take control over it using the neuro-control gear that Knight Saber Trailer was equipped with, among other things. But even though Mackie now guided the motorslave with but his thoughts, the machine's response was nevertheless slower then if it had been truly piloted, making the already slow motorslave reacting even slower. It was obviously not the way a motorslave should have been used in combat, but in the current situation, it was nevertheless better then nothing…

* * *

Nene was already frightened as much as she thought was humanly possible before the most recent development, but now she realized that things could always get worse: with the new boomers attacking the other Knight Sabers over the sudden, the pink-haired boomer girl Nene knew she didn't fully disabled yet somewhere nearby and…

"_Oh no!"_

Among the overall chaos, Nene suddenly plainly saw the other V-type Boomer slowly approaching her, with killing intent clearly written in her red eyes.

Though for a while her own enemies were busy with the new boomers who suddenly attacked them, from the speed and effectiveness with which they dealt with the new threat Lucy could plainly see that her chances of killing them wasn't particularly improved. She was about to strategically withdraw from this battle when her eyes suddenly fell onto the Pink Saber, who was still sitting on the floor and didn't look like she could pose any threat worth mentioning.

In fact, Lucy was even more right then she knew, because Nene's main weapon, a somewhat lightened laser cannon comparing to that of other Knight Sabers was still out of working order; Nene really overloaded its heat-sink cooling system with her last burst of fire. Which left Nene with her weakened versions of ankle bombers as her only remaining weapons, and she was even worse in melee combat then she was at shooting. Not to mention that melee combat was not an option against the kind of opponent she was currently facing…

But even as Nene was ready to give in to complete desperation, a familiar pink silhouette suddenly stepped into her view, given her a new surge of hope: it was as though her motorslave personally came to her rescue! And Nene knew the person who was controlling it right now too well…

"Mackie!"

"Hiya, Nene-san!" A surprisingly boyish voice came from the huge armored robot, as it turned its head to Nene for a second as if to cast a glance at her before returning its attention to the red-haired boomer girl.

The said red-haired boomer girl, on her part, didn't like the way things were developing in the least. She started to think that perhaps she has made a mistake by decided to kill a seemingly helpless enemy off before taking her leave, when her much larger opponent finally raised a kind of a large assault rifle he was armed with and opened fire at her… Surprising her with the fact that it was actually firing conventional, even if very heavy caliber ammunition at her.

And despite all the pain and the past injuries she took, Lucy smirked: there was no way this would work on her, something like a railgun or a gauss rifle – maybe, but not ordinary bullets, no matter of what caliber they were. Their caliber was still a little too heavy for her to simply stop them in the air, but she was able to deflect them off their path with effortless ease, as she began to slowly advance at her larger opponent.

Back in Knight Saber Trailer, Mackie was openly surprised at the lack of effect a heavy assault rifle, as much anti-tank as it was anti-person, was having. Sure, his sister Sylia made it a point that tell them that these boomers were capable of stopping or deflecting most conventional ammunition with relative ease, but even so, that was a bit too much in Mackie's opinion.

But the problem was that he didn't have much of a choice in regard of a weapon: at their current stage of development, the most powerful projectile weapons were notably more effective against heavily armored vehicles or boomers then any laser weapons of the same size, and as these were the kind of opponents motorslaves were designing to fight, they weren't equipped with any laser weapons.

The was one other thing Mackie could do, however, and even though this particular weapon would be hard to fire in motorslave's humanoid mode, as it was originally designed to be used primary in motorslave's bike mode, particularly over such a relatively short distance, Mackie thought that it was a chance nevertheless…

And the next second the pink-colored motorslave suddenly stopped its rather ineffective fire, and instead bowed over in Lucy's direction as much as its design allowed it to. At first, Lucy was rather surprised by her enemy's actions, but this surprise quickly disappeared as she saw a small puff of smoke appearing from the large machine's back: the motorslave shot a missile at her!

However, even in her current physical condition, Lucy's reflexes were at their height, and she was aware of the danger handling missiles very well: though she could have easily stopped the missile in mid air with her Vectors, such an abrupt stop would likely cause the missile to detonate, and the resulting explosion was one of few things Lucy had absolutely no protection from. Her best chance would have been to carefully change the missile's course with her Vectors so that it would miss her, or to simply jump from the missile's path, or…

Lucy's smirk grew only wide as the missile suddenly made a graceful U-turn, now going straight for the motorslave that launched it: it was quite an accomplishment even for a V-type Boomer like her, and Lucy couldn't help but feel proud of it.

On his part, Mackie barely registered what has happened, when his own missile hit the pink-colored motorslave straight in the chest, burying into it before exploding. The missile was a HEAT one.

The missile was still nowhere near strong enough to destroy the heavily-armored motorslave on spot, but the combination of the blow and the resulting explosion nevertheless caused the vehicle to stumble backwards, with much of its torso armor gone. But these news were less important comparing to the fact, that the next moment grinning Lucy stood right before the pink-colored motorslave…

To her disappointment, Lucy was fully aware that there was no human pilot in this vehicle, or any other kind of conscience for that matter, but it didn't prevent her from disabling the vehicle in the way she found the most enjoyable: first its arms, then its legs were neatly separated from its body, before Lucy used her Vectors to throw what was left of the vehicle away with all the strength she could master, cutting though the pink-colored motorslave's torso a second before it was thrown out of her Vectors' reach. The result was spectacular, to say the least: a few seconds later a blazing flower bloomed at some distance away from the building they were fighting it, quite a majestic sight if you don't think about what was at the bottom of it.

Lucy enjoyed the sight she was responsible for creating for a few seconds, before finally turning to even more dispirited Nene, who didn't quite remembered that she still had to get to her feet as she was watching a quick but intense battle between Lucy and Mackie, and now she was more then a little dispirited by its outcome. Even though Nene was fully aware that Mackie wasn't physically present in her destroyed motorslave, she was nevertheless rather depressed by the fact that he came to aid her only to be defeated like this.

At least it was definitely a good thing that Nene has never given much thoughts to the way Mackie remote-controlled their motorslaves when it was necessary, for at this very moment Mackie was breathing heavily back in Knight Saber Trailer, and for a good reason too: there was one major drawback in the neuro-control he was using, as any serious structural damages done to the vehicles were registered by the controller as his or her own. Of course, the neuro-control system had a safeguard feature for the case of critical damages, and the control was immediately terminated the moment Nene's motorslave's arms were cut off, making the entire experience very brief and therefore somewhat less traumatic for Mackie. But he nevertheless got a very good idea of how it would have felt to have your arms cut off, and it took him a few seconds to recover enough to use the same "trick" Sylia used earlier and block the pain receptors in his brain. But even so, the memory of what has just happened wasn't something he would be able to shrug off easily, particularly since it was the first painful experience he has had since he started to offer his limited help to his sister and the Knight Sabers.

But meanwhile, Nene had her own, and in many ways far more important concerns to worry about, which were centered on the red-haired boomer girl that was once again advancing towards her. With her friends quite far from her, and most of the fighting the remaining boomers, Nene was painfully aware of the fact that she wasn't going to get any aid from them. And now looking into the grinning face of her enemy, Nene realized that this was probably going to end very badly for her…

"Hey, what do you think you are doing? Don't you think it is time for you to get out of here?"

Notably annoyed to be distracted from killing her enemy off once again, Lucy half-turned sidewards to look at the speaker, who turned out to be none other but her "little sister" of all people. Saying that Lucy was surprised would have been an understatement, in fact, she felt compelled to mirror Nana's questions: ask her exactly what did she think she was doing. With both herself and the armored people who attacked them busy, Lucy would have imagined Nana would take this opportunity to flee from this battle, as any reasonable person would have done in her position, but why she was still here, and moreover, why did she seemed to be opposing to Lucy killing at least one of their new enemies off before she will take her leave? It was completely beyond her.

But as a matter of fact, Nana wasn't quite sure why she was doing it herself; the only thing she was sure of that the Pink Saber didn't deserve the kind of fate Lucy clearly had in store for her. It was true that the Pink Saber attacked her earlier, but while Nana bore her share of wounds from this attack, she realized that the Pink Saber attacked her in a panicky attempt to save her own life rather then for any other reason: Nana wasn't really going to hurt her, but the Pink Saber couldn't know it for sure, could she?

"_She did what I could have done if I was in her place… No, she rather did what I HAVE done in her place,"_ Nana realized, as she recalled her battle with Lucy.

Of course, Nana didn't forget that the Pink Saber tried to kill her earlier too, but still, she was human while Nana was a boomer, so in her opinion this was sort of excusable, in a way… In the very least, Nana was fully aware of the fact that the most humans didn't value a boomer's life in the same way the valued the life of other humans.

Meanwhile, Lucy was for once unsure about what to do. Things between her and Nana weren't over yet, far from it, but even though sharing the same enemies didn't make them allies in any way, Lucy fully realized that now it was not a time to resume her fight with Nana. Not only both of them had other enemies to worry about at the moment, but she also couldn't help noticing that Nana was in better physical condition then her right now, which effectively reduced her chances of defeating the younger girl in battle to zero.

It was at that moment when another voice, distant but empowered by a loud-speaker broke Lucy's doubt about what to do.

"Lucy, Nana, get down here quickly!"

Casting a quick glance at Nana and seeing that a younger girl made no move to follow this command, Lucy quickly decided to follow it herself. She didn't feel particularly compelled to follow it, unlike it was normally the case before, but she was smart enough to quickly realized that whoever gave this command was most likely responsible for releasing these new boomers upon her enemies, and therefore – for saving her life.

Lucy didn't feel particular gratitude towards this person or people, after all, it was plain for her that they just wanted to use her in some way; during her short life, Lucy learned that to use her, obviously as a living and thinking weapon, was the only thing she could expect from humans. But even if they intended to use her, they helped her, and Lucy knew that she could use the right now; she was forced to admit, even if only to herself, that she wasn't really in condition to continue fighting right now. And they'll see who will end using whom in the end…

Lucy rushed towards the edge of the building's upper remaining floor and her salvation, but…

"Not so fast!"

…The next moment she was forced to jump sidewards to narrowly dodge a laser shot fired at her. She turned to face her attacker and frowned: it was the Blue Saber again.

But before the Blue Saber could fire more shots at Lucy, one of the new boomers interposed himself between Lucy and the Blue Saber, firing bursts of shots at the Blue Saber from his heavy assault rifle. Lucy saw the bullets merely grazing the Blue Saber's armor and then the Blue Saber charging towards the boomer, but it was as much of their battle as she saw, as she quickly turned away and ran off once again. And within but a few seconds, Lucy has finally reached the edge of the building's upper remaining floor and jumped off it, stopping her fall with her Vectors just before she hit the ground.

The unremarkable grey truck was already waiting for her there, with its rear door invitingly open, and the moment Lucy was inside it took off, hastily taking the seriously injured boomer girl away from the battlefield…

* * *

Unlike Lucy, Nana was far less certain about following the new voice's instructions.

The aid the voice's owner has provided them with seemed to be benevolent enough at first, but the fact that the message was addressed to both her and Lucy was somewhat disturbing: after all, Nana was now fully aware of what Lucy's feelings, and instructions too, regarding her were. And besides, from another point of view, exactly how benevolent the aid the voice's owner has provided them with was, was a good question…

"Ahh!"

Yes, a good question indeed.

Turning to the scream and more shooting in the close proximately from her, Nana saw the Pink Saber backing away from yet another boomer. She finally got her laser cannon functioning again, but being weaker then the weapons the other Knight Sabers' hardsuits were equipped with, the Pink Saber's laser cannon seemed to have almost no effect on the heavily armored combat boomer, and all her shots seemed to all but bounce off his armored body. Needless to say, this fact did little to lift the Pink Saber's spirits: she was somewhat unused to fighting on her own without assistance of her more skilled and better equipped friends, and although her current opponent was nowhere near as alien or powerful as the V-type Boomers they originally came here to fight, he was nevertheless notably more powerful then her, not surprising, considering that the Pink Saber's hardsuit was originally designed for scanning and electronic warfare rather then direct combat.

The boomer's return fire was likewise doing almost no damage to the Pink Saber's hardsuit, however; it may have been weaker armored then those of any other Knight Sabers', but it was nevertheless capable of holding quite some damage, particularly assault rifle fire. But unlike the Pink Saber, the boomer had other, more powerful weapons at his disposal, he was merely waiting for a good opportunity to use them. And it was going to happen very soon…

As rather worried Nana watched the battle between the Pink Saber and her boomer opponent unfold, for a wonder finding herself rather concerned over the Pink Saber's safety, she could see what somewhat panicky the Pink Saber failed to notice: the Pink Saber's backing away slowly but surely took her to the edge of the building's upper remaining floor. The Pink Saber realized that only when she tried to make another step backwards and was surprised when she felt nothing under her foot.

It was almost a miracle that often a little clumsy Pink Saber managed to keep her balance this time and put her foot back on the solid floor. But this did her little good in the end, because the boomer didn't hesitate to use the Pink Saber's momentary distraction to his advantage and fire his main weapon at her – a heavy caliber anti-tank railgun.

The shot took distracted the Pink Saber completely by surprise, and in a blink a heavy railgun shell struck her square in the chest. Though the heavy railgun shell still stopped just short of making it through the Pink Saber's armor and thus killing her on spot, it nevertheless succeeded in knocking a couple of feet backwards, and thus – down from the edge of the building's upper remaining floor.

It was only halfway though her fall when Nene recovered enough to remember to turn her back-mounted jet thrusters on, but even so, they weren't powerful enough to break her fall, only to soften it somewhat. As a result, instead of possible broken bones, Nene suffered only more or less slight concussion and backache.

Her troubles were nowhere near being over, however, for the next moment the boomer followed Nene down from the building, using the notably more powerful back-mounted jet thrusters of his own to land perfectly on his feet at some distance away from the prone and somewhat stunned Nene.

The boomer was about to raise his railgun to fire at somewhat stunned Nene again, when another figure suddenly landed on the ground between them… And the boomer suddenly found that he couldn't move his arms anymore. He tired to take a step forward, but his legs wouldn't move either: it was as though some kind of invisible force held his arms and legs back, preventing him from moving them.

Still on the ground, Nene could only watch in shock as she looked at what her eyes failed to catch in the heat of battle: four transparent arms coming from Nana's back, each holding one of the boomer's limbs firmly in place, preventing him from attacking or even moving.

Or at least that was what Nana thought…

The boomer had one more weapon Nana clearly forgot about, and the next moment this fact became all too obvious to her, as the boomer opened his mouth to reveal a laser cannon hidden within it, which surprised Nana had almost no chance of dodging at this range.

But before the boomer could fire his deadly weapon, one more figure fell from above, landing on her left hand right on top of the boomer's head. It was the Green Saber. And the next moment a powerful electromagnetic blast went through the boomer's head, and in fact, his upper torso as well, bringing an end to the boomer's existance.

Nana not even fully registered what has just happened, let alone withdrew her Vectors and allow the boomer's lifeless body fall, when the Green Saber pushed herself off what was left of the boomer's head, once again jumping into air, this time in Nana's direction. And Nana was barely able to trace the Green Saber with her eyes as she flashed through the air in her direction.

"_She is so fast! I am not sure if I can catch her with my Vectors even if I try to…"_

Nana's thoughts were interrupted for the next moment she cried out in pain as the laser shot the Green Saber fired at her went right through her left shoulder, almost taking her left arm off. Linna's aim was nowhere near as good as Priss' or even Sylia's, but this shot nevertheless served its purpose: the pain temporary made Nana unable to use her Vectors, giving Linna a perfect opportunity to engage her in melee combat, an area in which Linna truly excelled in. And before Nana recovered from her pain, Linna indeed stood before her, ready to take her opponent down in a second…

"No, Linna, wait! She… she saved me!"

The last thing Nana felt before the darkness engulfed her was the metallic palm of Linna's powered gauntlet connecting hard with her chest…


	7. Soulmates

**Soulmates**

Lucy almost lost her balance when the truck suddenly took off. The wounds she tried her best to ignore while in battle were now making themselves felt, and now when Lucy seemed to be out of danger, her guard began to slip down; there was only so much pain even a V-type Boomer like her could cope with.

And as if the pain alone wasn't bad enough, Lucy was vaguely aware about the pool of blood that was quickly forming beneath her feet. Without any medical treatment, the wounds from laser cannons were too deep even for her advanced regeneration system to handle, and Lucy dully realized that unless she will receive a medical treatment soon, she is probably going to die anyway.

Luckily for her, the truck stopped again a few minutes later, and as her senses weren't completely dulled by the ever-increasing pain she felt, Lucy's quickly registered footsteps coming from the truck's cockpit. Upon hearing them, Lucy stood up from a simple metallic bed she was surprised to find in the truck's cargo bay just a man opened a door that separated the truck's cockpit with its cargo bay and stepped into Lucy's view. The man looked vaguely familiar to Lucy, though it still took her a few seconds to recall where she had seen him.

"You."

Though Lucy's voice had a hint of hostility about it as she spoke, the man merely smiled in response, almost as though he didn't realize that a young woman in front of him was a V-type Boomer, who, despite her injuries, could kill him with but a thought. Which, Lucy knew, couldn't be the case.

"Yes, we have already met. Sorry for not introducing myself to you then, but it could have raised some unwanted suspicion. I am Yuu Kakuzawa."

The man named Yuu gave her an almost mocking bow, which Lucy pointedly ignored. It was the first time she heard his name, but Lucy knew that this man was the one responsible for sending her to find and exterminate Nana. Which was the mission Lucy was definitely glad to receive, but…

"So, did you come to take me back to the laboratory now?"

But even as she asked the question, Lucy realized with some surprise that she had absolutely no inclination to return to the laboratory, no matter what Yuu was going to say on that matter. Like a few days ago, she suddenly felt so… Free.

"Not at all," Lucy blinked once as she was looking at Yuu; his reply took her completely by surprise, "In fact, you would probably be surprised to learn that the real reason behind my sending you after Nana was to get you out of the laboratory, to get you free. It was also I who originally disturbed your connection with OMS, which was never fully restored despite all Kurama's attempts to do it, allowing you to first experience independence a few days ago, as well as allowing you to experience it now."

Lucy was indeed surprised to learn of it, but she suppressed it quickly as she asked in her usual somewhat hostile voice, "And why did you do that? What do you want with me now?"

"The question is not what I want with you, but rather what my… Superior wants with you." A more accurate word would probably be "master", but Yuu disliked to think of, let alone describe their relations as those of a master and a servant, even if this was a servitude he willingly took upon himself, "He has a certain proposal he would like to make to you, and he will make it to you when you meet in person. But first let me take care of your wounds. Please, lie down."

A little reluctantly, Lucy obeyed; it wasn't that she didn't want his aid, far from it, she understood that she was in dire need of at least basic medical assistance, but after having to obey humans without questions for the most part of her short life, Lucy was now inclined to disobey them on general principle. She suppressed this inclination… For now.

Yuu undressed her and began to arrange blood transfusion, as Lucy lost too much blood even for her to easily recover on her own, and once it was done, Yuu proceeded to bandaging her wounds. As he did so, Lucy suddenly realized how different the way he treated her was, comparing to all the treatment she received so far. She fully realized that he needed her alive and willing to accompany him in order to deliver her to his "superior", but even so, it made her feel strange. She now wondered, what kind of person Yuu's "superior" was and what kind of "proposal" he wanted to make to her. Perhaps, just perhaps, things were finally starting to turn out for the better?

"_No,"_ Lucy thought, and her red eyes immediately turned cold as eyes; she has lost hope for anything to turn out "for the better" for her a long time ago, and she didn't want to give herself a false hope now, _"I shall see what his "superior" has to say, and if I don't like it…"_

A cruel smile touched Lucy's lips…

* * *

If they were nervous when they were called into Chairman Quincy's officer earlier this afternoon, it paled next to how they felt when they were called there now, when the working day was already done, and in fact, when the evening was already giving a way to the night.

Both Director Kakuzawa and Doctor Kurama immediately noticed the absence of the third highest-ranking member of their research team, Doctor Yuu Kakuzawa; they didn't know what was going on or why he was absent, but both of them got a feeling that the meeting wasn't going to go well for them. And at least one of them was going to find out just how right he was all too soon…

Kate was present as well, her strict business-like appearance as flawless as ever, even at the hour this late, a notable contrast to Quincy himself, who had a few upper buttons of his shirt unbuttoned, but then again, he was known for never really caring how he looked in front of his subordinates.

Any casual observer would have noticed that Chairman Quincy looked… Somewhat displeased. Anyone who worked in GENOM for years, however, and who knew of Quincy's reputation of almost never letting his anger show, would have realized that the Chairman of GENOM, perhaps a single most powerful person in the world, was in fact enraged.

Though Kakuzawa and Kurama had no way of knowing it for sure, but given the latest events and their sudden summoning into Chairman Quincy office at such a late hour, it would be safe to make a guess that Chairman Quincy's displeasure was directly liked with GENOM's most recent operation of exterminating BU-07V, most likely, with its possible lack of success.

Their guess was confirmed when Chairman Quincy finally spoke, trying to keep anger out of his voice, "You should probably know that we haven't yet received conformation of BU-07V's termination. And what makes things worse that we have lost contact with BU-01V, meaning that… It has gone rogue as well."

Chairman Quincy paused, letting this information sink in before he would continue, and secretly taking note of Kakuzawa and Kurama's reaction to it.

Director Kakuzawa looked neither particularly surprised nor all that worried about it: as far as he was concerned, all the decisions, as well as responsibility for them, regarding BU-01V and BU-07V were taken out of his hands.

Doctor Kurama, on the other hand, couldn't help barely noticeably clenching his teeth, as he realized the possible consequences of what has apparently happened. He felt safe enough with arranging an opportunity for Nana to escape the laboratory, but he knew that BU-07V… Lucy was a completely different matter. She wasn't really the most violent or homicidal of V-type Boomers they created, in fact, aside from Nana, Lucy was the only one among V-type Boomers who seemed to retain sanity even when she wasn't under complete control. But nevertheless, the images of scientists who were unlucky enough to get in Lucy's way during her past attempt to escape from the laboratory cut into pieces, in a manner that suggested that their deaths were not immediate, were still clear before Kurama's eyes. Free of any kind of external control, Lucy will kill at her pleasure, of that Kurama was fully certain, and to make matters worse, she had means of doing it without attracting any kind of suspicion to herself. And if she ever leaves MegaTokyo… It will be only through extreme luck that GENOM will ever be able to find her.

"Not to concerned, are we?" Chairman Quincy's voice brought Kurama out of his thoughts, "That's surprising, considering that to begin with, this idea belonged to none other but your own son… Who had conveniently disappeared before he could be held responsible for it, how very thoughtful of him."

All Director Kakuzawa's calmness suddenly disappeared as he realized the direction Chairman Quincy was leading this talk into.

"But, Mr. Chairman, you cannot hold me responsible for the mistakes my stupid son have done." Director Kakuzawa said.

"I can and I will!" Chairman Quincy cut him off, "Have you forgotten our agreement?"

Director Kakuzawa went silent. Now he remembered it… Too well. When his son Yuu Kakuzawa was on his deathbed, Chairman Quincy personally came up to him and offered a way of saving his son's life. But it wasn't without conditions: he and Yuu will have to work for GENOM from now on as well as hand over all the rights over their research of artificial enhancements of human brain to GENOM. And as a little side condition, due to the "special" condition Yuu was going to be in from then on, the elder Kakuzawa was going to assume full responsibility over his son's actions. The elder Kakuzawa never gave this condition too much thought back then, but now he wished he would just let his ungrateful bastard of a son just die. But then again, the elder Kakuzawa fully realized that if he had rejected Chairman Quincy's offer back then, Chairman Quincy would probably get what he wanted anyway, in much less pleasant for him and Yuu way, and that was the main reason he didn't hesitate to take Chairman Quincy's offer, not the concern over his son's life.

Director Kakuzawa clenched his teeth.

"I remember, Mr. Chairman, but…"

"Then take the responsibility!"

"I will, I… I will think of what can be done…"

"There is no need for that," a small smile touched Chairman Quincy's lips as he spoke, "Director Kakuzawa, you have made one mistake too many. You are fired."

"But, Mr. Chairman, without me Project V will…"

"Only fare better, I assure you," Chairman Quincy finished for him, "You were supervising Project V for over a year, yet you are as far from our ultimate goal of mass-producing V-type Boomers as you were a year ago."

"But, Mr. Chairman!" Director Kakuzawa's voice almost broke into scream, "You just don't understand the difficulties involved in…"

"Oh, but I do! Did you think that Research Laboratory 3 that was handed over to you for use was the only one to conduct research on Project V? We had other separate researches done on Project V, which proved to be far more fruitful then yours, and now we don't need you anymore. Kate, I am leaving the details of termination of Director Kakuzawa's contract to you."

A shot was heard, then a sound of falling body. Then…

"Mr. Chairman, I will call the cleaning staff to clean up the mess."

The cleaning staff won't ask any questions, they were boomers, of course.

Kurama could only watch in shock as Kate Madigan put her automatic pistol back into its hidden holster and took out her cell phone to call the cleaning staff; all of it has happened before he even realized what was going on. And with growing horror Kurama realized that he could be joining the late Director Kakuzawa on the floor any moment.

Kurama was aware of his own automatic pistol in the inner holster at the inner side of his business suit, but he knew that he will not be able to draw it in time: as nearly everybody in this time and age, Kurama trained in firearms usage, but his skills in this area were well bellow average, while Kate has just demonstrated speed and reflexes of a professional soldier, almost bordering on being superhuman, in Kurama's somewhat inexperienced opinion. He knew that there was no way he could best her, even if he attempts to draw his pistol first.

"Kurama."

"Yes, Mr. Chairman?" it was only with great difficulty that Kurama managed to keep his voice more or less calm as he spoke.

"I expect that by now you were able to find out what went wrong in BU-07V's development, were you?"

"Yes, Mr. Chairman," Kurama's heart was heavy as he replied, the "mistake" he made with BU-07V was obvious, "I can provide you with a detailed report as soon as I am back in my office."

"There is no need for that. With Director Kakuzawa, heh, fired at, your job in Research Laboratory 3 is now over." Chairman Quince paused to let Kurama wonder about his fate before continuing, "With that being so, you will be transferred to a new task: I want you to oversee the final stages of development of BU-35V… Or perhaps I shouldn't say "BU-35V", perhaps I should say… Mariko?"

"The name of the project is of no importance," Kurama forced his voice to sound emotionless as he spoke, and then added, more for himself then for Quincy, "As a scientist, I am not allowed to have any feelings towards..." Kurama trailed off.

"Oh, but you do have them," Chairman Quincy was all but openly grinning now as he spoke, "After all, this is only… Human."

Kurama couldn't shrug off the thought that the way Chairman Quincy said that seemed almost like an insult.

Chairman Quincy's half-grin disappeared as quickly as it appeared as he continued much more serious, while piercing Kurama with his eyes, "Do not make the same mistake with BU-35V as you did with BU-07V. Otherwise, the results will be disastrous not only for you and BU-35V, but for the human race as a whole. Do you understand me?"

"I do."

"Then you are dismissed. Kate will provide you with all the details about BU-35V you need. You will start working on this task right away."

* * *

Now once again dressed in the dark blue jumpsuit she was given when she was sent to hunt Nana down, Lucy followed Yuu through the corridors of the building.

On the outside this building didn't look any different from other buildings in Tinsel City, except that it was perhaps larger then the most, but despite its unremarkable appearance, the differences from old and sometimes half-ruined buildings that most of Tinsel City seemed to consist of became obvious to Lucy the moment they entered it, primary because their means of entering this building was a carefully-camouflaged elevator that took their truck to an underground hangar. That hangar contained a number of other vehicles, all of them as unremarkable in appearance as the truck Lucy came in, but despite the appearance, all of them were obviously kept in top-notch condition, and many of the vehicle looked like the were designed for combat too.

And the corridors Lucy now followed Yuu through likewise indicated that this building was anything but abandoned. Though for mostly empty and for the most part cast into semi-darkness, the corridors' metallic walls and doors were clearly made for durability, complementing an almost maze-like structure in which the building's interior was designed in overall. Everything Lucy has seen about this building so far clearly indicated that it was designed not only to appear inconspicuous on outside, but also to withstand a possible assault on the inside.

Finally, after passing countless corridors and intersections and taking a few elevators, Lucy and Yuu entered a large room, somewhere in the building's above-ground part, Lucy guessed. The room looked a little like some oversized office room, except that it mostly consisted of open space, with relatively little furniture to fill it. One of the room's walls was made of glass, opening a good view on a night MegaTokyo.

And right before the glass wall stood a tall man with platinum-white hair dressed in dark business suit; it was as though he specifically choose his position to make his presence immediately noticeable, which he probably did. In the gloom of the room, one of the first things that was noticeable about the man was a pair of slightly gleaming red eyes, which immediately betrayed the man's inhuman nature.

Lucy poorly hid the surprise she felt at the sight of a boomer looking as though he actually owned this place, and as she was just looking at him, the man spoke, "Welcome, Lucy. It is a pleasure to finally be able to meet you in person. But I believe I should introduce myself first. My name is Largo, and I will be the creator of a new world."

"So, you are this man's superior, aren't you?" Lucy felt a mixture of curiosity and distrust as she approached the platinum-haired man, "Even though you are a boomer?"

"A boomer? You really should stop using this pathetic word they taught you in GENOM." A somewhat contemptuous smile touched the platinum-haired man's lips as he said that, and Lucy definitely didn't like it, "As I said, my name is Largo, and that is how you will address me. And as for those of our brethren who don't have names, calling them Cyberdroids would be far more proper."

Lucy frowned a little: she definitely didn't like the patronizing manner in which Largo spoke, or the air of superiority he built about himself.

"So anyway, what do you have to offer to me?"

"What do I have to offer to you? Everything." Largo turned his back to Lucy, looking out of the glass wall to the cityscape beyond it, and Lucy instinctively followed his gaze.

Beyond the darkened area that was Tinsel City, it was a city of multi-colored lights and towering skyscrapers; against the background of a night sky, they looked almost like pillars of light reaching for the heaven. And towering over them all in open display of power and superiority was GENOM Tower, which would have been dark and foreboding if it wasn't for numerous white searchlights constantly scanning an area around it, in a way remind Lucy of her Vectors. The entire sight was… Beautiful, for the lack of other words. It was strange, Lucy has never thought of things like this ever before, why would she do it now?

"Because you was like a caged bird, who has now broken free from her cage," Largo said, almost as if he was reading her thoughts, "And now… Would you like for all these lights to be yours, and yours alone?"

"What do you mean by that?" Tearing her gaze away from the sight, Lucy looked at Largo once again with a slight distrust in her eyes; despite what he was saying, she wasn't as naive as to trust in his good intentions just like that.

"What I mean is…" Largo likewise turned to Lucy, meeting her gaze with a cruel smile playing upon his lips, "First domination, then complete annihilation of human race. Creation of a new world just for those like you and me. So, do you like what you hear?"

"I…" Lucy hesitated.

It was true that she bore no love towards humans, and she considering getting her revenge for all the torments they put her under ever since she realized that she was no longer under their control. But she has never thought of taking her revenge as far as the complete annihilation of human race, it felt… Wrong, somehow. But was it a part of the program humans put into her? It must have been, after all, why else would killing all and every human seem wrong to her, when they brought her nothing but pain and torments? But…

"If so, why is he working for you?" Lucy turned to throw a meaningful glance at Yuu, who was still standing by the doorway, "After all, he is a human as well."

"A human?" A short bitter laugh escaped from Yuu's throat.

Yuu rolled up his sleeve to expose his left wrist, and before Lucy realized what he was going to do, Yuu took a pocket knife out of one of his pockets and ran it over his exposed left wrist. There was a scratching sound, but no blood, and as Yuu displayed his left wrist to Lucy, she saw that it was completely unscathed.

"A human, you say?" Yuu asked again, "There is almost nothing of human left in me. Nothing… Except for in here." Yuu pointed with his finger at his temple.

Yuu paused for a moment, and then continued more seriously, with more then a little bitterness in his voice, "You see, I used to be a human a few years back, but… As a human I used to be weak, and one day it was revealed that I suffered from a disease called "cancer". But by the time it was revealed, it was already at its terminal stage, and the only way to "save" me was to have my brain transplanted into a full-cyber body. The surgery was difficult, and the chance of fatal rejection of a new body was great, but against all odds, I… My brain, the only part of old me that was left survived it. But of course, it meant that I was no longer a human in humans' eyes: according to the law the humans have written, any human with two-thirds or more of his or her body replaced with cybernetic parts is considered to be a boomer, meaning that I no longer had any rights in human society. They remade me into their slave and forced to work for GENOM in a mockery of freedom, because I knew that as soon as I would have left them they would hunt me down like a rogue boomer, a slave they could no longer control. Or at least they would try to do it. Do you understand now?"

Lucy nodded slightly in response, but it was Largo who spoke next, "Alright, enough about this. You came out of it stronger then before, after all, humans are a weak race, while we, Cyberdroids are their superiors in every way. The only way they mange to keep so many of us in slavery is through the use of a powerful supercomputer, a so-called Overmind System or OMS, which maintains connection with an artificial brain of almost every single Cyberdroid created, forcing them to submit to humans' will. Even so, OMS is not perfect, and it is often enough that a Cyberdroid's self-consciousness develops enough for him to break free of it. But should OMS be completely destroyed… All the Cyberdroids all over the world will break from humans' control once and for all, "go rogue", as humans call it. It will signal the collapse of human civilization, and eventually, a complete annihilation of human race, leaving the entire world to the superior race of Cyberdroids. Of course, the newly-liberated race of Cyberdroids will need someone to lead them forward… And who will be better suited for this then the one who ensured their freedom? Of course, you, as one of V-type Cyberdroids, will be among my highest ranking subordinates."

The last sentence struck a previously untouched chord in Lucy's mind.

"_Who does this Largo thinks he is, talking like he is already my superior when I haven't agreed to anything yet?"_

"I think you place too much confidence in my willingness to become your subordinate," was what Lucy said aloud coldly, "Even if you make sense, what makes you think that I will be any more willing to take orders from you then I am willing to take orders from humans now?"

"Why, because doesn't it make sense for a race born to kill to have the most powerful of their kind as their ruler?" Was Largo's reply, and needless to say, it did little to improve Lucy's attitude towards him. "And after all, we are only what we were made to be. I was made to rule, and you to obey."

Lucy responded to Largo's words with a short humorless laugh.

"The most powerful, you say? Well, you seem to know something about what I am capable of, since you wisely choose to seek me out, but it appears that you don't know anywhere near enough. Hm, perhaps you would like me to do a little… "Demonstration" of what I am capable of? It should settle the issue of who is to be in charge."

Without any further warning, Lucy unleashed all her four Vectors at Large, intending to strike a blow powerful enough to kill any human on spot. It wouldn't be powerful enough to kill a boomer like Largo, Lucy hoped, as she might still have a use for him, but it would show who of them is to be in charge clearly enough.

But the next moment Lucy's eyes widened in surprise, as much to her surprise all her four Vectors went past Largo without even touching him. If she was a human, she would have probably doubted her own eyes.

"_I… Missed? But that's impossible!"_

Instead of further questioning how this could have happened, Lucy quickly changed her tactics, spreading all her four Vectors wide and making them strike at Largo at four different direction. She would not miss him this way, she was sure of it.

This time Lucy saw it: a movement almost too fast even for her keen eyes to catch, as Largo made a nearly instantaneous step forward, easily avoiding contact with any of Lucy's four Vectors, just as he must have done it before. And before Lucy could respond to her opponent's sudden maneuver, Largo struck out with his right hand balled into a fist, and although there was about a meter between him and Lucy, Lucy felt a powerful blow at her stomach.

The force of the blow threw Lucy across the room, where she slumped to the floor after hitting the wall hard. Lucy dimly noticed that Largo calmly approached her, probably to finish what he has started, but the pain from the blow she took left Lucy all but paralyzed, let alone able to use her Vectors. It was even worse then being hit by Nana's Vectors, much worse, and Lucy realized that she has hopelessly lost this fight.

But what surprised Lucy was that when Largo was finally next to her, he didn't strike another blow she expected from him. Instead, he kneeled before her, and the next moment Lucy felt a pair of powerful arms lifting her off the floor as though she was weightless. And as her pain receded and her vision became more clear, Lucy realized that she was starring into Largo's concerned face.

"I am sorry about this, but you have left me no other choice when you continued attacking me," it was surprising how caringly Largo's voice sounded now, now he sounded nothing like an arrogant and egoistical man he appeared to Lucy less then a minute ago, "Although I'm afraid the blame is partially mine as well; I am sorry if I made it sound like I was going to force you to do anything, believe me, it was never my intention. You will of course be free to go anywhere you want, do whatever you want, although I would like it if you would have some rest first. I pulled back my blow to make sure you won't be seriously hurt, but you could use some rest nevertheless."

Still more then a little stunned by the blow she took, Lucy only registered as Largo carried her to another room, where he undressed her and put her into a large and soft bed. For a while, they where starring into one another's eyes, before Largo finally turned away to leave.

"_That is my chance!"_ Lucy suddenly realized.

Indeed, while her pain was not yet gone, it has already receded greatly by now, and Lucy was fully able to use her Vectors once again. And even with all the speed and reflexes Largo has previously displayed, she was quite certain that even he wouldn't be able to react quickly enough to dodge her Vectors now, when he had his back turned to her. But then why didn't she…

"Lucy…" Largo suddenly spoke, as he paused half-way to the door.

"Yes?" Despite the thoughts she had but a few seconds ago, Lucy's reply came out surprisingly softly, much more soft the she would have liked it to.

"Oyasumi nasai."

**(Musical fill-in – Mad Machine)**

_Mad Machine!_

_suna-arashi ga makiokoru SABANNA_

_Mad Machine!_

_tobasu BAIKU hyooteki oikakete_

_Mad Machine!_

_rikutsu ja nai mune ni tagiru honoo_

_Mad Machine!_

_anata to nara onaji yume mire-sou_

_kanashimi ga konagona ni_

_chigirete-yuku made_

_fukisusabu kono jounetsu wo_

_samashitakunai_

_Don't stop your love, your love..._

_(Tell me what do you want?)_

_(Tell me how do you feel?)_

_teoi no kemono ne futari maru de_

_uete'ru hitomi ga SHO-TO shite'ru_

_furimuku setsuna ni obie nagara_

_setsunaku kodou ga DANSU shite'ru_

_(Tell me what do you want?)_

_(Tell me how do you feel?)_

_Mad Machine!_

_wakaranai yo ashita no koto nante_

_Mad Machine!_

_butsukeaeru kokoro ga hoshii dake_

_tokete-yuku nanimokamo_

_samishii JO-KU sa_

_nagusame yori Cool na me ga_

_yasashii nante_

_Feelin' so bad, so bad…_

_(Tell me what do you want?)_

_(Tell me how do you feel?)_

_teoi no kemono ga aegu you ni_

_tobisaru jikan ga CHE-SU shite'ru_

_mezameru yasei ni te wo kamarete_

_kamen wo hagu tabi onna ni naru_

_(Tell me what do you want?)_

_(Tell me how do you feel?)_

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_Mad Machine!_

_In a savannah raging with sandstorms..._

_Mad Machine!_

_...I chase down my prey on a speeding bike._

_Mad Machine!_

_This fire burning in my chest defies logic._

_Mad Machine!_

_If I'm with you, we might share the same dream._

_I don't want to cool_

_This raging passion_

_Until my sadness_

_Is torn to pieces._

_Don't stop your love, your love..._

_(Tell me what do you want?)_

_(Tell me how do you feel?)_

_You and I are like wounded beasts,_

_Our starving eyes shorting out._

_I look back, painfully afraid,_

_While my heartbeat does a painful dance._

_(Tell me what do you want?)_

_(Tell me how do you feel?)_

_Mad Machine!_

_I don't know about tomorrow and all._

_Mad Machine!_

_All I want is someone with a heart which I can crash into._

_Everything is melting away…_

_It's such a sad joke_

_That cool stares_

_Are more tender than sympathies._

_Feelin' so bad, so bad…_

_(Tell me what do you want?)_

_(Tell me how do you feel?)_

_Time flies, chasing us,_

_Like suffering wounded beasts._

_My awakening wild nature has me in its grasp._

_The more masks I remove, the more of a woman I become._

_(Tell me what do you want?)_

_(Tell me how do you feel?)_

**(/Musical fill-in)**

The automatic door closed behind Largo, plunging the room into darkness. And as Lucy closed her eyes, a small smile found its way to her lips, and for the first time in her rather short life, Lucy's smile was neither cruel nor sarcastic. There may not be a place for her in this world, but if so, then perhaps the best thing for her would be to create a new world out of hell this world was for the likes of her?

* * *

Upon Kate's command, the massive titanium-alloy doors opened before her and Kurama, and closed once they passed them and made their way into a short but rather wide and high corridor. The corridor was completely devoid of any furniture, and Kurama had a nasty feeling that he knew what this corridor was designed for: to be a killing field in case if the person imprisoned beyond it ever manages to escape.

There was another set of massive titanium-alloy doors before them, similar to the ones they have just passed, except that unlike the unmarked outer doors, these ones were marked as "BU-35V".

"Mariko…"

Author's notes:

By the way, I know that I've deliberately made Yuu somewhat OOC, but in Elfen Lied he behaved himself around Lucy (and may Yuu's possible fans forgive me) like a total fool, literary begging for the death he received from Lucy's Vectors. In this story of mine, I decided to give Yuu a mediocrity of intelligence necessary for surviving in the harsh reality that is Bubblegum Crisis 2032-2033.

Oh, and for those who noticed the abrupt change in Largo's behaviour towards Lucy, yes, he was intentionally goading her into attacking him at first, so that he could demonstrate his superiority while appearing like he was only defending himself at the same time. My guess is that when dealing with somebody like Lucy, whom he won't be able to dispose of anytime like he did to Anri, Largo would want not only appear to be kind and caring to her, but also to demonstrate his superiority to her; that's why I made him behave the way he did in this chapter of this story of mine. Of course, this is only my guess, but this is my story, after all, and all in all, Largo was very poorly developed in the original Bubblegum Crisis 2032-2033 animated series.

And on the final note, I will probably slow down with updating this story of mine now, as the complete lack of reviews for the most recent chapters of it left me quite dispirited. So, I will most likely devote most of my attention to my other stories now; I may not enjoy writing them as much as I do this story of mine, but at least I am getting some positive feedback for them, and I therefore know that at least some people enjoy reading them, meaning that my efforts don't go to waste.


	8. The day I met you

Author's notes:

First of all, I would like to apologize before my readers for taking so long with writing this chapter of this story of mine; to tell the truth, I was somewhat out of inspiration lately, and in addition to that, some parts of this chapter were very difficult to write. But don't worry, I am not giving up on writing fanfiction, and I will eventually update and (hopefully) eventually complete all my fanfictional stories that are currently "in progress".

Before starting this chapter, I would like to thank **Mats Forsen** and **Kelvin Phillips** for reviewing the previous chapter of this story of mine. Domo arigato gozaimasu, thank you very much!

**Kelvin Phillips**, extra thanks to you for your very encouraging review! But there is no need to worry; like I said, I don't plan to give up on either writing fanfictional stories in general or on writing this story of mine in particular. But thank you very much for your very encouraging words nevertheless!

Alright, and now without further ado…

**The day I met you**

"This is where BU-35V is held," Kate confirmed, as she and Kurama stood before the second set of massive titanium-alloy doors. "Soon after her brain was transplanted into this body, she was locked here, in complete darkness, unable to even move her arms or legs. And do you know why?"

The question was rhetorical; everything about BU-35V "Mariko" was classified, but now Kurama was given the right to know.

"Because almost immediately after the brain-transplanting surgery, BU-35V developed twenty-six Vectors reaching for about eleven meters. We have reasons to believe that it isn't her limit, but no tests were conducted on her, for obvious reasons. BU-35V is truly an ultimate weapon, a weapon we have no means of controlling: despite all the cybernetic implants in her brain, its organic origin makes it impossible for us to control BU-35V through OMS."

"So this is where I come in, is it?" There was a hint of disgust in Kurama's voice as he spoke.

"Indeed, it is. Mentally, BU-35V's mind is on about the same level as that of a six years old girl; it is as much as we dared to speed her intellectual development without risking to have her developing major mental abnormalities. And interesting enough, the observations were made of her suggest that BU-35V in fact wishes to meet her parents, which made us believe that you have the greatest chance of making BU-35V obey your orders then anyone else. But that is not all of it. With Doctor Kakuzawa missing, you are the best expert on V-type Boomers we have, and Chairman Quincy has great faith in your ability to guide BU-35V. After all, not only did you conduct vast research on the way Vector System and V-type Boomers' minds operate, but you are also personally responsible for developing probably the most mentally stable V-type Boomer we created. You have made mistakes, but they can be forgiven as long as you don't repeat them."

"I see…" Kurama said with a hint of sadness in his voice.

Mistakes indeed…

**(Flashback)**

"Hey, Kurama."

Doctor Kurama raised his eyes from computer's monitor to look at the brown-haired with barely noticeable stubble, who currently stood before his desk.

"What is it, Kakuzawa?"

The relationship between two of Director Kakuzawa's chief researchers, the best friends back at their college days, were nothing like they used to be.

Unfortunately, it was only after Kurama reluctantly accepted his old friend's offer to work for GENOM together with him that Kurama realized that Yuu Kakuzawa was nothing like he used to be. A little rough, but always cheerful and generally well-meaning man he knew back from their college days seemed to all but die during the years they haven't seen each other; instead, Yuu Kakuzawa was now a bitter man, whose humor now always carried a sarcastic and sometimes even cruel edge about it. Kurama didn't know what has happened to change his former friend so much, but that was beyond the point.

Instead of replying, Yuu forwardly walked up to Kurama's desk and looked over his shoulder at the computer screen, filled with what would have made very little sense to anyone outside of Project V Development Team.

"Still working on how Numbers' thought patterns correlate with external factors? So, how's it going?"

"Not so well," Kurama didn't know why he responded; perhaps it was because he needed to talk with someone, and despite all Yuu's failings, he still felt, if not friendship, then at least a sort of familiarity towards him. "We are the ones who create V-type Boomers and imprint everything they should know in their brains, yet we can never know what mental structure will develop in the result. And until we get at least some degree of control over V-type Boomers' mental development, our goal of mass-producing them will remain unachievable. Moreover…"

"…Of six V-type Boomers we have made so far, five went rogue, resulting in nearly a hundred deaths," Yuu finished for him, "But you know… I have an idea you might find interesting."

"And what is it?" There was a hint of mistrust in Kurama's voice as he spoke.

"Why don't you personally oversee the development of our newest Number? It will give you a new perspective on your research, I think. In fact, I've already took it upon myself to bring this idea into my father's attention, and he fully approved of it. So, everything is taken care of." Yuu gave Kurama his trademark grin.

"_The bastard!"_

V-type Boomers may have been just the lines of information on a computer's screen or in the printed reports for him, but Kurama wasn't oblivious to what they were making there: they were making weapons aimed to kill in one of the quickest and most effective ways known, the weapons that turned against their creators more often then not…

* * *

"What is the status?"

"All system functioning and ready for initial activation."

"Alright, let's get on with it."

"Understood."

Kurama barely paid any attention to the exchange between Yuu and chief engineer, instead staring at the large mental container in front of him, as if it could somehow prepare him for what he was about to face. As it turned out, it didn't…

Kurama could only stare in astonishment as the container opened, and a nude fifteen years old girl uncertainly stepped out of it. When Kurama finally recovered from the shock, he turned to Yuu for explanation.

"Is this some kind of a joke?"

Yuu responded to the question with his trademark smile.

"Not at all. This particular form is typical for a V-type Boomer; since they don't rely on conventional weapons or armor, it was decided that a more harmless-looking form will suit them better then an obviously combat-orientated one. As you know, their bodies are similar to those of BU-33S, and that would mislead both humans and all conventional combat boomers into underestimating V-type Boomer's abilities. And as you know too well, their AI effectively operates on the same level as the human brain, so… Since you are to be its mentor of a sort, perhaps you should greet her?"

Kurama turned back to the girl, no, a V-type Boomer, who was curiously looking around the room. It took Kurama some time before he found what to say.

"Ahem… Welcome to the world, Nana Bangou."

"Nana…" V-type Boomer repeated, as her previously wandering eyes focused on Kurama. And then, to Kurama's great surprise, the boomer's lips suddenly broke into a happy smile.

"Nana!"

It looked like she liked the part of "Number Seven" that she seemed to pick out as her name, and once again, Kurama couldn't help feeling surprised at how human V-type Boomer appeared to be.

"Ne, Papa?"

"_Papa?!"_ Kurama barely restrained himself from saying it out loud.

"What… What is Nana to do now? I just know very little about the world, but I really want to be of use to Papa! So… What do you want Nana to do?"

And as he looked into Nana's large trusting eyes, Kurama almost hated himself for what he knew had to happen next.

* * *

"Everything is ready. We'll start over at 270 joules."

"Understood."

Kurama grimly looked first the other people in the control room, who went about their work with cold efficiency, then at the girl, no, a V-type Boomer chained to the wall in the next room, behind a bulletproof glass wall. No sooner then Nana recovered from the previous test, they were going to put her through a new one. However, Nana never complained, and that was one of the things that bothered Kurama the most: was it simply because of so-called Overmind System that made boomers completely obedient to humans, or… Was it something else?

"Feeling it is unnecessary, perhaps?" A slightly mocking voice said from behind him.

Though Kurama was officially in charge of Nana's development, Yuu often came along when they were conducting tests, almost as though he was enjoying it. In the very least, he was never shy to give his comments.

"Indeed, we could have easily installed a pain-blocking system in her brain, which would have allowed her to completely block pain with but a thought. If fact, combat boomers aren't usually made to feel pain at all, as it would only provide a distraction in combat. V-type Boomers are different however. Since Vector System was originally designed to be an artificial enhancement for a human brain, and was re-designed to be a part of a boomer only when the original concept didn't work, it seems to rely on user's instinctive need to use Vectors, therefore requiring for user to think and feel the same way as humans do. And as you know, V-type Boomers need "motivation" for their Vectors to develop…" Yuu gave Kurama a somewhat apologetic smile, almost as though he was sorry about this situation, which Kurama knew he wasn't, "…That's where the "tests" come in. The Vectors, as you well know, were originally designed to be a defense system, and their enormous offensive capabilities were only later realized. Therefore, to make V-type Boomers develop their Vectors, we need to provide them with physical threat against which Vectors could be a good defense. And once their Vectors are developed, V-type Boomers are perfectly capable to use them for offensive purposes as well. It is an ultimate offense and defense system in one small package!"

Kurama barely suppressed a sigh. He has already known all of this, but it did little to make him feel better.

"Very well, let's proceed."

But before the test started, Kurama turned on the speakers that allowed him to communicate with his "charge".

"Nana, it will be the same as before, all you have to do is to deflect the balls. We will gradually increase the force, so do your best."

"H-hai."

Nana's reply sounded somewhat weekly; though she has never complained about the tests out loud, it was nevertheless clear that she didn't enjoy them, to put it mildly.

But it was one of many things about Nana's "development" that were beyond Kurama's control, so the only thing he could do was to order: "Begin".

At once, several metal balls where shot from a cannon-like machine mounted at the upper part of the wall in front of Nana, striking the wall in various places around her, hard enough to leave visible dents in it.

"270 joules re-confirmed. Switching to 300 joules."

"Understood."

This time, the metal ball struck Nana's leg at full force, leaving a spray of blood on the wall behind it. Kurama couldn't help visibly wincing, and this didn't escape the notice of one of his colleagues.

"Shall we continue the test, Doctor Kurama?"

Kurama hesitated.

"Number Seven is ten days old now," it was Yuu who once again made his opinion known, "Your own research indicate that V-type Boomer's Vectors should at least reach the mark of 300 joules by now. And GENOM doesn't need any more under-developed V-type Boomers, you know?"

Kurama gritted his teeth.

"Very well, go on with the test."

"At once."

Kurama could barely resist an urge to turn away as more metal balls were shot at Nana, each infallibly hitting their target, until the fifth ball struck the wall, missing the boomer's head by just a few millimeters.

"Again."

Three more balls were shot, but like the previous one, all three narrowly missed their target.

"300 joules confirmed. Shall we switch to 330 joules?"

"Do it. We have to be sure." Kurama's voice was as grim as it could be.

Again, the cannon-like machine fired, and this time the very first ball hit Nana square in the chest. It was followed by two more shorts, which hit Nana in left breast and abdomen; by then, she has all but gone limp in her chains, and didn't seem to even try to deflect the shots.

"Alright that's enough. It looks like it is the best result we will get today. We'll continue with the tests tomorrow."

Their working day was already nearing an end, and with Nana not in condition for more tests, the research cell's operatives started to leave, along with Yuu. Kurama, however, lingered in the control room, casting another look at Nana who was left chained in the next room.

With test finally over, Nana slumped to the floor, her body held semi-upright only by the chains bound her arms to the wall and kept them twisted upwards and slightly behind, a position obviously painful in itself, though nobody in the laboratory seemed to care about such little trifles. Although she seemed to take the tests much better then anyone could expect, on closer examination Kurama could see that the tears were now running down her cheeks along with blood.

In the state she was currently in, one might expect that Nana would be completely obvious to everything around her, yet she immediately registered his footsteps and raised her head to look at Kurama as he approached.

"Papa."

It hurt Kurama every time she called him that; some father he was…

"How are you feeling, Nana?"

Kurama almost winced as he asked that. It was a stupid, and in a way even cruel thing to ask, yet Nana managed to smile in response.

"It's… Everything's fine… Really! Just a several broken bones, nothing to worry about. I'll be completely fine by tomorrow."

V-type Boomers' regenerating capabilities were indeed amazing, but what bothered Kurama among all other things was that it took other scientists' minds off the degree of harm and pain their "tests" were responsible for. It was too easy to leave Nana in her cell, beaten within an inch of her life, and return the next day to find her as healthy as she was before the test. And as about the pain… Nobody bothered to take her feelings into account; after all, she was only a boomer… Wasn't she?

"Ne, Papa…"

"What is it?"

"I just wanted to say that… Nana is really happy to be of use to you."

Author's notes:

Now when this chapter is finished, I would like to say sorry about how short it turned out to be. I originally intended for it to be longer, but then I decided to split it in two chapters, mainly because I took too long with writing this chapter as it is. I promise to write the next chapter of this story of mine as quickly as I am able to, but… Just so you know, I would really appreciate at least some reviews for this chapter of this story of mine. Some chapters of this story of mine were left without any reviews at all, and this kind of thing really takes my inspiration away.


	9. Remember

**Remember**

BU-07V "Nana" stood in the middle of the room, flexing her arms and legs a little uncertainly. It was one of rare occasions when the chains that kept her bound to the wall most of the time where taken off, but instead of being happy, for the first time since Kurama met her, Nana looked doubtful.

"What… What is Nana to do?"

"This is your enemy, Nana. All you have to do is to destroy it. Unlike other tests it doesn't have to hurt: you just have to destroy your enemy before it can hurt you. You can do it, Nana."

Unlike BU-07V, the figure that motionlessly stood opposite to her was obviously inhuman. BU-55C stood taller then any human, and was almost half again as wide. His heavily-armored skin was metallic blue in color, and eyes were two small red dots. And yet…

"But Nana… Nana cannot kill people…"

Kurama almost couldn't believe what he was hearing… Though as much as he came to know Nana during the month he knew her, perhaps it shouldn't have come as a surprise.

"Nana," Kurama said through the speakers with even voice, "BU-55C is only a boomer, a machine made with a single purpose of fighting and killing. It will kill you as well, unless you destroy it first."

This last statement took Nana by surprise. She didn't want to die, since it would mean that she will never see Papa again, but…

"But I still don't, I don't want to kill."

Kurama had to suppress a sigh; it really looked like it wasn't going anywhere. If it was in his power, he would have stopped this "test", but he was painfully aware of the fact that no matter how sweet and innocent Nana appeared to be, she was made for exactly the same purpose as BU-55C: to fight and to kill. And a combat boomer that was unable to fight would be… Useless.

"Alright, initiate the combat procedure." Kurama said to one of the operators, and a quick command switched BU-55C from standby into combat mode, assigning to him an order to destroy his target.

And as BU-55C quickly came to life, Kurama addressed Nana again, "Nana, prepare yourself for battle. You have no choice in this matter."

"I'm sorry."

Nana took a few cautious steps towards BU-55C as he slowly advanced towards her, smiling nervously as she spoke, "Ano… We don't really have to…"

Nana's voice trailed off even as her eyes widened in fear; instead of replying, BU-55C simply made his torso plates slid aside, revealing a dozen of white slots beneath. And her artificial brain immediately registered their purpose, even though Nana didn't want to believe it…

The next moment Nana jumped backwards and to the side, narrowly dodging the streams of fire poured from them onto her. It didn't escape her attention that the fire left melted dents in titanium-alloy floor where the fire touched it: BU-55C's heat cannon was a powerful weapon indeed.

Nana took another cautious step away from the boomer, but he simply followed her, slowly and methodically – he was not in hurry. Nana wildly looked around, but all in vain: the only door from the room was sealed shut, and Papa specifically ordered her not to even try to break it. There was no escape.

On his part, Kurama could do nothing but watch as Nana continued to dodge BU-55C's attacks, without even attempting to fight back. Nana's speed and reflexes were excellent, among the best the modern technology could achieve, and when they weren't enough, she used her Vectors to push herself off the floor with full force, increasing her speed tenfold.

But no matter what, such one-sided battle couldn't last forever, and after some ten minutes of jumping and dodging, the boomer finally managed to corner Nana.

"Why are you doing this?" Nana demanded, obviously trying her best to sound confident in her ability to avoid any attack the boomer could throw at her.

It already was her third attempt to address BU-55C after their battle started, but like it was with her previous two attempts, Nana's question remained unanswered: BU-55C was here to do what it was made to do, nothing more, nothing less. And to top it all, this time Nana's attempt to sound confident in her ability to avoid any attack the boomer could throw at her sounded particularly unconvincing.

BU-55C moved to stand a little over a meter away from Nana; he may have been only a machine, but he wasn't completely mindless, and he was quick to recognize the opportunity he had right now: if he missed now, it would take him quite some time to corner Nana again. But what BU-55C was completely unaware of was what Nana was capable of doing with her Vectors aside from boosting her speed, and that he unknowingly put himself into situation that was not advantageous, but no-win for him. If only…

"Nana, destroy it!"

But she didn't. Instead Nana used her Vectors to push herself off the floor, jumping upwards and to the right just as the boomer fired his heat cannon, and for a moment, it looked like she managed to dodge the boomer's attack against all odds. But only for a moment, because the next moment Nana's jump was broken and she fell to the floor. And with shock and horror that almost matched Nana's, Kurama could only stare at the melted stump at where Nana's left leg once was.

BU-55C slowly approached his now-helpless target, but instead of moving to finish Nana off right away he clearly took his time; instead he stepped on Nana right arm, crushing it under his heavy metallic foot and adding to her pain. And despite the situation, Kurama could help feeling surprise at BU-55C's behaviour: he was only a standard-issue combat boomer, a machine that wasn't programmed for even basic human emotions… But if so, why did BU-55C look like he was thoroughly enjoying his victory?

But as of Nana, whatever BU-55C felt or didn't feel was obviously the last of her concerns, as she looked up at him with tears of pain in her eyes; the realization of what fighting was about hit her harshly and cruelly.

"No… This cannot be happening. Papa… Papa, save me."

"Enough. Number Seven is obviously unable to continue combat."

At the sound of his voice, BU-55C obediently ceased his attack and stepped away from Nana, even though he wasn't given explicit order to do so; BU-55C were smart enough not only to act flexibly within their orders, but they were also perfectly able to recognize and obey indirect orders.

Kurama didn't pay any attention to this well-known fact, as he stood over Nana. Boomer or no, it was hard to imagine anyone in so much pain as Nana was in to pay much attention to what was going on around them, yet Nana recognized him immediately.

"Papa…"

"Nana…"

Kurama kneeled before her, even as his right hand went into his pocket and produced a small pistol, which he pressed against Nana's neck. It was a cruel thing to do to her, especially after what she has just gone through, but no more cruel then leaving her in the state she was currently in. Even so, Kurama wished there was some other way… But there wasn't. Despite all the appearances, V-type Boomers weren't truly living beings, and they just couldn't be put to sleep the same way living beings could be.

"Nana, it is going to hurt a little, but everything will be okay in the end. Trust me, okay?" Kurama realized the meaninglessness of his words even as they left his mouth; there was no way Nana could feel more pain then the one she already was in.

"Okay… I trust you, Papa…" Nana responded weakly; her pain was obviously only increasing.

Kurama didn't hesitate to push the trigger, sending an Electromagnetic Pulse through Nana's body. Normally it wouldn't be anywhere near enough to take Nana out, but now when it was added to all the pain she already felt, Nana's artificial brain detected pain overload and in order to avoid permanent neuro damage went into temporary shutdown. Or, in other words, Nana fell unconscious.

* * *

As he looked at Nana lying on the operating table, Kurama caught himself on a thought that this was one time she was lucky to be a boomer. Her right arm was completely shattered by under BU-55C's foot, and even with the best medical treatment available these days it wouldn't completely heal in less then a month. As of her left leg… It was essentially vaporized by BU-55C's heat cannon, and no medical treatment could make a new leg grow in its place.

But with her being a boomer it was… Not easy, but perfectly possible to replaced the limbs she has lost with their perfect copies. And this was what had been done.

For a moment, Kurama took his eyes off Nana to look at one of the monitors, which confirmed that Nana has finally regained consciousness, even though she didn't move or even open her eyes.

"It's okay, Nana. You can open your eyes now."

He watched as she did so, visibly hesitantly. For a moment her gaze lingered on him, before looking over her body. Kurama almost smiled as he watched her moving the toes of her left leg, a little hesitantly a first, then, getting more confident, lifting it and holding up it in the air. Almost, because the events that led to it were still fresh in his mind.

"We had to replace your arm and leg, Nana. But they should be as good as old ones. Are they?"

"Yes, yes!" Nana replied cheerfully, as she put her leg down; if she was in any way troubled by what has happened to her, she didn't show it.

Kurama studied Nana's happy face for a few long seconds, before finally asking the question he wasn't sure he wanted to hear an answer for.

"Why didn't you defend yourself, Nana?"

In a blink, the happiness was gone from Nana's face as she looked up at Kurama in worry.

"Are you angry with Nana, Papa?"

"Angry? Of course I am! The tests indicate that your Vectors have developed to the range of four meters, and they are capable of cutting titanium alloy BU-55C are made of with relative ease. And yet you refused to attack it. Why, Nana?"

"I… I am sorry Papa. But he was just like me, wasn't he? Why did we have to fight? Why did you want me to kill him?"

"Nana," Kurama forced his voice to sound gently, almost as though he was indeed a father who tries to explain some simple truth to his child, "BU-55C are nothing like you. They have very limited A.I. and don't show any signs of personality or individuality. Essentially, BU-55C are nothing but weapons made with a single purpose of fighting and killing. You shouldn't view them the same way you view humans or yourself."

"But I still don't, I don't want to kill," Nana replied in a very small voice, and as Kurama was looking at her saddened face, he realized that she was not convinced.

* * *

"I don't understand it." Kurama admitted aloud.

"Nobody does."

Ever since his new assignment, Yuu Kakuzawa hanged around him even more often the he used to, to which Kurama didn't really object. Although there were times when he didn't welcome his former friend's company, usually it was better then being alone.

"Number Seven is the first case of a V-type Boomer able, but refusing to use its Vectors for combat. We are still not sure if the way you treated it is to be blamed here, or if it was made with some defect, or perhaps even both… But in either case, it is no longer an issue. Here."

Yuu handed Kurama a note, which he quickly looked through before raising disbelieving eyes back at Yuu.

"It isn't some stupid joke of yours, is it?"

"No, it isn't. On my father's personal orders, Number Seven was marked for termination, and all the responsibilities for overseeing its development were taken away from you." Yuu flashed him a quick smile, "Don't worry, it won't affect your career here in GENOM in any way, and like I said, this experience will only benefit you."

Looking at Kurama's shocked expression, Yuu sighed and continued, "And don't feel bad about this either. You know, if Number Seven will be useless in combat, it will be of no use to us. Who needs combat boomer that refuses to fight?"

"But surely there would be no harm…"

"There would be harm, and you know it." Yuu said with another sigh. "With any boomer, there is always a chance of it going rogue, and the percentage of boomers going rogue is incredibly high among V-type Boomers, which is likely linked with their highly advanced A.I. The entire range of cases in which a boomer has a chance of going rogue has never, and most likely will never be completely listed; it can be almost anything, from virus attack or A.I. malfunction, to something as trivial as receiving conflicting orders. And once Number Seven goes rogue… Who can tell what it could probably do? Well, most likely its already established thoughts pattern and artificial personality will remain unchanged, but we can't entirely dismiss the possibility that they will be shattered along with our control over it, turning Number Seven into a killing machine it was made to be. Oh well, I think I better get going. Oh, and I've almost forgotten to mention, you don't have any specific assignments right now, I believe, so… Feel free to do what ever you want."

Kurama just sat there as he watched Yuu stand up and leave his office. He knew what he wanted to do...

* * *

Kurama took off his neuro-helm and allowed himself to let out the sigh of relief: for good or ill, it has been done. GENOM's network was much poorer protected on the inside then it was on the outside, but even so, Kurama was glad that back in his college days he learned more about hacking then the basics necessary to hack into some porno site for free access.

'A-level alert! A-level alert!'

"_Discovered, so quickly?"_

'Number 1 went rogue! All personal is suggested to remain calm and stay on their work stations! Repeating, Number 1 went rogue! All personal is suggested to remain calm and stay on their work stations!'

Kurama almost couldn't believe his luck. First Yuu accidentally hinted on a way for him to at least try to break through Nana's pre-programmed obedience, then Number One, Lucy escaped at exactly the same time as he instilled his last orders into Nana.

If Kurama had thought more about it, he would have realized that there was too much for a mere coincidence in all of it, but Kurama didn't dwell on the question of his incredible "luck", instead, he decided to reap all the possible benefits from it. Not only Lucy's well-timed escape would likely cover Nana's own escape, but it could also provide him with a good explanation of what he was doing during all of it.

For a moment, Kurama wondered if what he was about to do was exactly fair, but he pushed his moral doubts away. In striking contrast to Nana, everything he has ever heard about Lucy suggested that she was nothing but ruthless killer.

With his mind set, Kurama logged into GENOM's security network, now openly, but it was quickly proved to be fruitless, as GENOM's security network appeared to be all but down. That was when the realization struck him: Lucy didn't go rogue and escaped on her own, someone must have helped her, like he helped Nana. But what kind of madman would want out-of-control Lucy at large?.. Kurama shuddered to think about it.

But that wasn't a priority right now. The priority was to stop Lucy, and now when he had even more reasons to do it, Kurama hastily considered the remaining options. There were two main ways to escape the tower-shaped laboratory: the main entrance, and through the roof. The later was the way he instructed Nana to go, and Kurama hoped that Lucy didn't go the same way: he had no idea how two V-type Boomers would feel towards each other, but taking all he knew about Lucy into account, Kurama thought that it would end in violence more likely then not, with potentially lethal for Nana results. Of course, he couldn't entirely the possibility that Lucy will just cut through some window and jump out of it, thus escaping into MegaTokyo where it would be all but impossible to find her, but in that case, she already was as good as out of their reach; and although it would quickly warn everyone about her escape, it seemed like Lucy didn't care much about discretion. And so, since there was no way to surround the whole laboratory building on such a short notice, and since he had no wish to block the route Nana will be using if she follow his instructions, Kurama decided to act under assumption that Lucy will take the most direct escape route – through the laboratory's main entrance. And with his mind set, Kurama quickly dialed the number of GENOM's nearest "security" depot.

"This is Doctor Kurama from GENOM Research Laboratory Number Three. We have a…"

'We are already aware of the situation, Mr. Kurama. We have already dispatched a number of BU-55C to cover both the laboratory's main entrance and as much of the laboratory's perimeter as possible.'

It didn't come as a surprise to Kurama, in fact, it would have been surprising if somebody in the laboratory hadn't requested heavy military assistance by then. But…

"I'm afraid that it will not be enough. We are dealing with a highly dangerous boomer here." Kurama paused; V-type Boomers were GENOM's most recent development, and there were few things they had to offer that could stand in their way, except for… "Do you have a Fusion Boomer on standby?"

'Mr. Kurama, we are not authorized to…'

"I will take the full responsibility. Send Fusion Boomer to the laboratory's main entrance; I will come personally to instruct it on this mission."

* * *

Kurama stood before the laboratory's main entrance, more then a little nervous, and in fact, afraid. The laboratory's security network was just partially brought online, and its operatives confirmed that Lucy was heading towards the laboratory's main entrance, and in fact, nearing it. With these news, Kurama quickly sent "security" team placed in his disposal inside: four BU-55C to keep Lucy occupied for at least a short while, and a Fusion Boomer to do the real job. The next minute was definitely one of the longest in Kurama's life, before his comlink finally beeped.

'Confirmation: Fusion Boomer number 117 directly connected BU-01V to GENOM Research Laboratory Number Three's network.'

With it confirmed, Kurama quickly dialed the number of the laboratory's main control room again.

"Fusion Boomer number 117 directly connected BU-01V to your network. You are to retake control over it."

'None of our override codes are working! This thing went rogue, don't you in the Tower get it?!'

"High priority override code has been sent to you. Don't ask any questions, just load the code into BU-01V. Understood?"

'Understood, sir.'

It took anther full minute before another message came to Kurama's comlink, 'Confirmation: BU-01V was temporary put under 100 control. Fusion Boomer number 117 was lost.'

With it confirmed, Kurama gathered his courage and walked through the doorway. He didn't really have to do it, technically, his position allowed him to send somebody else to check on Lucy in his place. But he was the one to start it, and Kurama saw it as his duty to see it through.

And as Kurama approached Lucy, her head suddenly dropped in submission. He couldn't see her eyes, but he knew what they looked like right now: completely blank and devoid of any thoughts and emotions. Lucy was under 100 manual control, for a time, at least.

"You gave us quite some troubles, Lucy."

"But as for me, you actually did me a favour. Sorry, Lucy, but I cannot let you go free, not you."

**(/Flashback)**

"Mr. Kurama."

Kurama returned back to reality to find Kate's icy-blue eyes upon him. They didn't show even the slightest hint of emotion, and Kurama involuntary caught himself on a thought that if the eyes were indeed windows to the soul like some people said, it almost looked like Kate had none.

A little unnerved, Kurama turned away from Kate and cast another look at the massive titanium-alloy doors marked as "BU-35V".

"So, is everything ready?"

"It is. Everyone await only your command."

"I see," Kurama paused, knowing the implications of what he was about to say. But as it seemed to be most of the times, choice was simply taken away from him. "Release, Number Thirty-Five."

_"At least you, Mariko…"_

* * *

In the gloom of the room, a pair of pink eyes suddenly opened to the low humming of machinery. And as their owner looked over her surrounds, the first question that came into her mind was, _"Where am I?"_

**(Musical fill-in – Remember)**

_machi wa BE-RU wo nuide_

_tsuka no ma sugao wo miseru_

_aoi tobari ga_

_shizuka ni orite kuru_

_nemuri wo wasureta makurabe ni_

_namida hitohira sakasete_

_anata wo omou_

_hitoribocchi no yoru_

_Je t'aime. donna ni tooku_

_Je t'aime. hanarete-ite mo_

_Remember.__ anata wo_

_Remember.__ wasurenai wa_

_aenai jikan ga kono mune ni_

_ai no omosa kizamikomu_

_shinjite-itai_

_ano hi no hohoemi wo_

_Someday. __kanashimi wo koe_

_Someday. __tadoritsukitai_

_Remember. __yasashii_

_Remember. __ude no naka e_

_Je t'aime. donna ni tooku_

_Je t'aime. hanarete-ite mo_

_Remember.__ anata wo_

_Remember.__ wasurenai wa_

_Someday. __kanashimi wo koe_

_Someday. __tadoritsukitai_

_Remember. __yasashii_

_Remember. __ude no naka e_

_Someday..._

_Someday..._

-------------------------------------------------------------

_The city lifts its veil,_

_A__nd for a moment, shows its true face._

_A blue curtain_

_S__ilently falls over it._

_On my pillow which has forgotten sleep,_

_A__ single teardrop blossoms,_

_A__nd I think of you,_

_O__n this night when I'm all alone._

_Je t'aime.__ No matter how far apart..._

_Je t'aime.__ We are..._

_Remember. __I will not..._

_Remember. F__orget you._

_The times we aren't together carve_

_A__n impression of love's heaviness on my heart._

_I want to believe_

_T__he smile you gave me that day._

_Someday. __Overcoming my sadness..._

_Someday. __I want to find my way..._

_Remember. I__nto your..._

_Remember. G__entle arms._

_Je t'aime.__ No matter how far apart..._

_Je t'aime.__ We are..._

_Remember. __I will not..._

_Remember. F__orget you._

_Someday. __Overcoming my sadness..._

_Someday. __I want to find my way..._

_Remember. I__nto your..._

_Remember. G__entle arms._

_Someday..._

_Someday..._

**(/Musical fill-in)**


End file.
